Our new house has an air conditioning unit in one of the bedrooms I’d like to get rid off. I Dont know how these things work tho, does the refrigerant flow between the unit on the outside of the house to the unit in the bedroom? If so presumably it’ll need degassing before I do anything?

This is the unit. Please ignore the artex and pink paint. The whole place is something of a fixer-upper
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Yes, there will be a pair of pipes + live cables to the outdoor unit. I’m not sure what the refrigerant will be but it’s worth getting it professionally ‘de-gassed’ I’m sure.

The refrigerant should really be reclaimed (using specialist kit), but who knows, its maybe empty after leaking over the years…

Its certainly been there a while judging by the amount of poorly cut in paint around it and the plastic is quite faded. Is there any way to tell if it has any gas left in the system? (I can’t switch it on as I Dont have the remote control)
Is the refrigerant particularly hazerdos or harmful to the environment?

you see the side plate?, that will tell you what the refrigerant is, call an air con company who will degas it for a small charge, then you can or they can remove it, this assumes it is functional and needs this doing, if it hasn’t got the outdoor unit then you could probably just take it down. however it may be one of those b&q airborne jobbies that can be disconnected via some couplings but will still require proper disposal.

I work in air conditioning. The airforce units are the b&Q specials. They do have snap together pipework to join them, so anyone can install them. They are Chinese branded units and I wouldn’t trust to try and uncouple the pipework to dismantle, as you may burn yourself and release refrigerant into the atmosphere. Best look up a local firm who can remove the refrigerant and dispose of it the correct manner.

?what he said….
aside from the fact that releasing refrigeration gases to atmosphere is illegal, it is pretty nasty stuff which you don’t want to come into contact with.
it does need to be reclaimed by a professional.

Thanks for the advice chaps.