but but, the outdoor balcony space!
Thanks for all the advice guys. When I asked the estate agent about whether the AC was an inverter or not he said it wasn’t but that non-inverters are much better anyway. Smells like BS to me but what can you do. I tried to explain all the detailed information you’ve kindly given me above with my shitty Chinese, but failed miserably.
I did manage to convince them to give me a 7 month contract, instead of a year, so my soon to be acquainted nosy neighbours and I can enjoy my huntsman infested, typhoon deathtrap together during the fall, winter and early spring months, without suffering the summer heat.
I’m also considering buying some kind of cheap sheeting or panelling to go inside the apartment to keep the cold air close to the bed and reduce how quickly it seeps out of the roof.
Thanks again!
Normally find mine when I have to clean behind the fridge
I like the top floors especially in the winter. As for the inverter technology, my understanding is that they save money if you leave the air on for longer periods of time. If you turn it on and off every 5 minutes, you will not get the benefits from a non-inverter and you might as well get the cheaper non-inverter. My apartment came with a window unit and my highest bill was 12k. With the second hand inverter that I bought, I rarely go over 3500 and the apartment is cooler.
12k for two months?
I really think inverter is only good if you have a slightly oversized unit for the cooling load or you have variable cooling loads (like cafes, restaurants, etc.). If the unit is properly sized I don’t think it makes a difference one way or another, except you’re just paying way more for the unit.
Window units are not very efficient I heard, but I only heard “inverter is more efficient compared to window unit”, well duh, even standard split unit is more efficient than window unit. What they never say is how much more efficient a split inverter is compared to a split standard, I suspect the difference is negligible enough to not be worth the extra cost… Also inverter AC has rather complicated electronics and if they should fail, the whole unit has to be replaced because the electronic is machine/compressor specific. You can’t just say swap it with electronic from another inverter unit with a bad compressor like you can with standard units (supply power to the compressor and it runs, no funny electronics needed). Unless of course you can somehow bypass the electronic and supply 3 phase power to the compressor (and I am not aware of any AC control board that takes 3 phase power unless it’s a large industrial unit). That would of course turn it into a standard AC unit. It’s just much more complicated which is why they are more expensive.
Also, if you hate huntsman get a cat. The cat eats them.
Yes, 2 months. I have a big place.
Split units are usually quieter too.
Depending on where you live, what is immediately around your bedroom, the white noise of the older units can be appreciated. 
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Not really. They prefer to use it as a toy, which leaves the chance that it might escape and live one more day…
Is there any easy way to tell if an apartment is an illegal rooftop apartment or a valid one without actually visiting it?
For example this one: [整層住家]古亭捷運飯店風兩房一廳(公寓有電梯） - 591租屋網
Or is any 5/5 floor (a.k.a the highest floor) considered a “bad” apartment? Doesn’t make sense to me, usually in my country meanns the higher the floor the more expensive.
Dinglou or even top floors here can be baking hot in Summer.
Well, is there a rooftop above the apartment with a staircase leading to it, that one can physically access and walk around on? Or is the roof just a metal sheet?
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The law is I think pre 1993 builds are legal. Post 1993 are not but so long as no structural modifications are made there’s no issue. I really wouldn’t worry about this. Unless you’re looking at a brand new dinglou but that’s highly unlikely. You’d have to bribe every neighbor and various authorities to get the build done and it’d be gone in a hot minute as soon as anyone called 1999. I had a landlord who tried to build above our 5F but was too cheap to bribe the neighbors. One day a bunch of big men turned up with sledgehammers and knocked it down.
The one you link to is clearly a fifth floor apartment. Dinglou are always sixth floor. The key here is the apartment goes to the fifth floor. For a dinglou even if the building has an elevator you have to walk up one set of stairs.
Some rooftop aren’t actually “rooftop” but part of the apartment building. Usually these are where they put altars or whatever in because it would otherwise be too hot to live in for people. I know someone who lives up there, with no AC and stuff.
an illegal rooftop apartment is a floor above the legal top floor. if it is 5/5, 10/10, or any, it means a legal top floor. 6/5, 12/11, etc are illegal. or it may say 頂層加蓋/5
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Yes but it’s de facto legal if a pre 1993 build. In Taipei anyway.
yes, but I guess what the poster wants to know is whether the room is on the rooftop or on the top floor.
A lot of guys will build a roof over an apartment because it does help cool the top floor off and save on cooling.
But what they’ll do is turn that into a flat and rent it out.
They use satellite photo to catch illegal additions.
It’s very obvious looking at the advert. It literally says 5F/5F.