Go Ductless with a Mini-Split Heat Pump Before we built a new home, I’d never heard of mini splits. What could they be, some kind of tiny frozen dessert or something? Mini splits are actually ductless heating-and-cooling systems. They look something akin to what you’ve probably seen in hotel rooms, though residential models these days are smaller and more streamlined. A mini-split system has two components: an indoor air-handling unit (or units) and an outdoor condenser. The components are connected by a conduit, and no ducts are involved. Related: Heating Systems 101 Mini-split technology has been around for 30 years, and it’s used a lot in Europe and Japan. Like a refrigerator, a heat pump uses electricity to pump refrigerant, transferring heat from one place to another. When that heat is being transferred from the outdoors to the inside of a house, that’s the heating mode. When heat is being transferred from the inside of a house to the outdoors, that’s the air-conditioning mode.

So mini splits can offer both heating and cooling in one. They are generally designed to cool and heat a single room or zone, and there may be up to four indoor handling units hooked up to a single outside condenser. Mini splits are not right for every space, but there are definitely advantages for particular applications. Here are a few places you might consider installing such a system: • A home that has no ductwork, like one that has previously had radiant or electric baseboard heat. One outdoor condenser can operate up to four indoor air handlers, so you could individually control four rooms/zones with a single mini-split system. • Rooms that are not regularly occupied. You can turn off the mini-split system and close the door to save money. • Additions or outbuildings where extending or installing ductwork is not feasible. • Spaces that are adjacent to unconditioned spaces (like garages, attics, and unfinished basements) where ductwork would be exposed to harsher temperatures.

We have our mini-split system in the bonus room over our garage. The garage is unconditioned, so running ductwork through that space would be a big energy loss liability for our HVAC system—a waste of money. We use that bonus room as a guest room, and it is unoccupied much of the time. We can close the door when no one is there, and that’s 400 square feet we’re not paying to heat or cool. Mini splits have no ducts and therefore can avoid the energy loss (up to 20% or 30%) that comes with forced-air systems running through ductwork. commercial ac unit weightMini splits can be hung on the wall or a ceiling, and some even come as freestanding units.air conditioner unit size calculator I’m not going to lie. charging your own home ac unit

The mini-split system at our house is not cute. I don’t care for the way it looks. But it is quiet and it does keep the room remarkably comfortable. And I love that we’re not paying to heat or cool a room we don’t regularly use. For more on home heating, consider: 10 Space Heaters We Love Save Money with a Hybrid Furnace How To: Choose the Right Furnace FilterEnergy All-Stars: High-Efficiency Air Conditioners Room • Central • Ductless Split-System Thanks to new technology and new federal standards, air conditioners are more efficient than ever before and will improve further in the coming years. Of course, bumps in efficiency also mean bumps in price. Email to a Friend I'd like to share an article I read on Consumers Digest with you... The government is leaving no stone unturned when it comes to making sure that you have energy-efficient appliances in your home. For example, in September 2014, new federal energy-efficiency standards went into effect for refrigerators.

Now, new minimum requirements went into effect for room air conditioners and in 2015 for central air conditioners. The latest: Department of Energy is considering standards for portable air conditioners—the last vestige of the consumer air-conditioning marketplace that’s untouched by regulation. Today, energy-efficient technology that was used by only one or two manufacturers previously is widespread, and energy-efficiency ratings hit record highs. Air conditioners are getting smarter, too—from being able to sense when you’re in a room to relieving you from making a maintenance call. Contractors tell us that a malfunctioning central air conditioner now can send an email that tells the contractor the problem and which part is required so he/she can fix the air conditioner in one trip, which should cut down on maintenance costs. That’s a good thing, because more-efficient models will cost you more upfront.In January 2015, DOE minimum-efficiency standards went into effect that divide the United States into three territories: the north, southeast and southwest.

Central air conditioners that are sold in the north still must have a minimal seasonal energy-efficiency ratio (SEER) of 13, which has been the national minimum since 2007. However, new central air conditioners that are sold in the southwest and southeast states must achieve a SEER of at least 14. That change pushed several manufacturers to revamp their lineups. Rheem, for example, says that instead of upgrading a few models to achieve compliance, it will roll out an entirely new product lineup for 2015 that meets these new efficiency requirements, some models of which already are available. Trane, meanwhile, is bringing new models to market in addition to upgrading models that already exist in the company’s lineup. Unsurprisingly, these new models come with updated and new (read: higher) prices. Manufacturers don’t publish MSRPs for central air conditioners, but the four manufacturers with which we spoke all agreed that, in general, the new models are more expensive than their predecessors were.

No across-the-board formula determines how much more a 14-SEER air conditioner will cost when compared with a 13-SEER model, says Dave Yates, who is the president of heating-and-cooling installer F.W. Behler. He says that, in some cases, manufacturers simply expand the size of the air conditioner and use a bigger coil to get the extra point of efficiency, which is a relatively inexpensive upgrade. Others invest in new compressors or technology. In general, we found that 13- and 14-SEER central air conditioners typically cost $1,200–$3,800. How New Regional Standards Might Affect You Read Now However, Charlie McCrudden of Air Conditioning Contractors of America, which is a trade association, says making a big air conditioner can have a big effect on pricing. He recalls the last time that minimum standards went up, to 13 SEER from 10 SEER. “Suddenly, those boxes didn’t fit into trucks the way they used to,” he says. Consequently, transportation and shipping costs went up as a result of units getting bigger and trucks not being able to carry as many in a single shipment.