As said apart from space saving. An air con at ground level is more likely to be kept an eye on, as you can often hear it going wrong and being so much easier to get at, more likely to get serviced.

We should note that many tall buildings are built within confines & often have a flat concrete roof designed to take machinery as there is only that area, or the basement to choose from. Lots of houses do not have those constraints.

One should not get Legionella in the towers, if properly maintained. The set in the chemical factory in which I worked, had a system that metered in biocide and we checked it on a scheduled basis anyway. These were cooling reaction vessels (reactors).

Marc

I think in rural areas Telstra is waiting for NBN to fix up everthing they have let run down

Not only rural, I've heard of slow DSL in parts of Brisbane due to Telstra inaction.

A new and "award-winning" high-rise in Canberra, supposedly "eco-friendly", has all its air-conditioning units located in the basement car-park where there is no cross-flow. The building includes a cinema multiplex, offices and apartments. On some recent hot but not extreme days (mid-30s), temperatures in the car-park were well above external temperatures. Cars entering the car-park import heat from outside, and those inside become increasingly cooked by the load coming from the over-worked airconditioners. An example of style over substance.

Marc's point about technical education is important. For about thirty years our politicians have been hood-winked by "economists" to increasingly favour speculation over production - absurd rewards for speculators (and I include "financial advisers" and negative-geared property investors) and nothing but kicks in the tail for producers in all sectors except foreign-owned extraction industries, mining and some unsustainable agriculture. Contrast with Germany, where technical education is highly valued and despite fewer natural advantages and higher base costs than Australia they maintain strong industrial export industries based on design and manufacturing skills.

Maven

The biggest problem with most companies here is that an accountant is usually one of the highest ranking executives. Industrial companies need a team of engineers at the top, perhaps being advised on costings by an account at a late stage of product development.

As for condenser units being located in confined spaces - that is absolutely ludicrous and typical of the priorities of some architects. Always form over function with them.

Contrast with Germany, where technical education is highly valued and despite fewer natural advantages

Same thing with Japan and others. Lack of natural resources concentrates the mind on survival, and the reverse is true.

The biggest problem with most companies here is that an accountant is usually one of the highest ranking executives

The accounts department has been the traditional ladder to the top in many organisations, both here and overseas. The bigger a company gets, the more the talk at the top turns to finance and numbers. General Motors is often cited a classic case of what happens when a numbers man replaces an engineer. Both disciplines are needed, but only the engineers can come up with product innovations and solutions.