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.fan coil unit preventive maintenance 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. auto ac repair in mcallenMini splits can be hung on the wall or a ceiling, and some even come as freestanding units.ac delco sending unit I’m not going to lie.

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 Filter Lennox offers an extensive line of split system components that provide reliable performance to meet the demands of a variety of commercial applications. Our systems offer the highest efficiency available while reducing energy bills and maximizing comfort. From heat pumps and air conditioners to high-quality air handlers and indoor coils, Lennox delivers a wide range of configurations for ideal comfort. Air Conditioners and Heat Pumps S-Class® Air Conditioners (SSB) and Heat Pumps (SPB) T-Class™ Air Conditioners (TSA) and Heat Pumps (TPA) Nitrogen-Charged Air Conditioners and Heat Pumps

T-Class™ Large Split Systems (60Hz and 50Hz) T-Class™ Air Handlers (60Hz and 50Hz) C33, CR33, CH33, CH23 Indoor Coils indicates ENERGY STAR® qualified product Lennox® Mini-Split Systems offer flexible, easily installed cooling and heating for a variety of commercial applications when new ductwork isn’t convenient or even possible. Energy efficient operation and extensive product portfolio make these Mini-Split Systems a perfect fit for any environment. Single-Zone Heat Pump Units Multi-Zone Heat Pump Units Low Ambient Heat Pump Units - Single-Zone Low Ambient Heat Pump Units - Multi-Zone As you may expect, there are many manufacturers of heating and air conditioning equipment. Albemarle Heating & Air is your Charlottesville area authorized dealer for some of the leading manufacturers in the industry. Over the years, we agreed to represent these companies, after thoroughly investigating their quality, reliability and dependability. We are proud to represent companies that include Trane, Lennox, Sanyo, Mitsubishi and Buderus Boilers.

In addition to servicing equipment that we sell, we will service all of your heating and air conditioning equipment, regardless of the brand. We can also establish a service agreement for your system, regardless of brand. Our service department is staffed by qualified technicians with a focus on total customer comfort. The mark of a reliable home comfort systemThe Good Housekeeping Seal is issued by the Good Housekeeping Research Institute, product evaluation test laboratory of Good Housekeeping magazine. All Seal-bearing products are backed by the magazine's two-year limited warranty for replacement or refund if defective. No other magazine in the world offers this kind of service to its readers.Image 1 of 3 Is the ductless minispit head shown in this photo unattractive or obtrusive? Green Building Advisor technical director Peter Yost sent the photo to a dozen friends and colleagues to find out what they thought. Ductless minisplit heat pumps have gotten many favorable reviews at Green Building Advisor, but Roy Goodwin sums up a concern that's popped up more than once: Despite their virtuoso heating and cooling performance, they're a little on the homely side.

"My wife and I are 69," Goodwin writes in Q&A post at GBA. "We're in the process of designing a house for our retirement with our architect. It's going to be a 'pretty good house' with a very small heating/cooling load. Neither my wife nor I think the ductless minisplits are all that attractive." In addition, Goodwin adds, the air filters on a wall-mounted head could be a challenge to change because of their location. Ceiling-mounted ducted minisplits look like they'd present similar challenges and require a step ladder for filter changes. That's something they'd like to avoid. Their 2,000-square-foot house will be built in the mountains of western North Carolina in Climate Zone 4. "We're looking for something like a conventional heat pump (ducts and all) with air filters that are easier to access," Goodwin says.That's the topic for this Q&A Spotlight. While the indoor units of ductless minisplits are usually mounted high enough on the wall to keep them out of the way, there's no reason they can't be lowered, GBA senior editor Martin Holladay points out.

He includes a photograph of a unit mounted on an interior wall at roughly knee-height (see Image #2, below.). Ductless Minisplit Heat Pumps Putting the Duct Back in Ductless HVAC Ducts and Accessories Its location might mean an occasional sore shin, but filter changes would be a snap. Or, adds Dana Dorsett, choose a unit designed for installation on the floor. They look like small wall furnaces, he says, and like fin-tube convectors for hydronic heating systems most ductless floor units circulate air from the front face. "They are easily set into walls or cabinets with the face pretty much flush with the wall," Dorsett says. Mitsubishi, in fact, publishes directions for embedding one of their units in a wall in such a way that its efficiency is unimpeded. Fujitsu website includes specs for a universal floor/ceiling unit that can be mounted on the floor or just high enough on a wall to get a vacuum cleaner underneath. It can also go right on the ceiling, and the cabinets are just under 8 inches deep.

John Semmelhack refers Goodwin to a ducted Mitsubishi Mr. Slim model. A complicating factor for Goodwin is how well these units would fare with high-efficiency air filters (those with high Minimum Efficiency Reporting Values, or MERVs). "We'd like to use something pretty high performance for dust as well as allergies," Goodwin says. "What about something like the Trane XV20i, which is variable capacity?" Goodwin doubts the unit would ever run near its two-ton (24,000 BtuBritish thermal unit, the amount of heat required to raise one pound of water (about a pint) one degree Fahrenheit in temperature—about the heat content of one wooden kitchen match. /hour) rating, but it might be better prepared to handle higher static pressures that high-performance filters would create. "Would running it at the low end on its rated capacity, using the variable-speed compressor, be less efficient?" "Would it have a negative effect on its life expectancy?" "In general," Dorsett replies, "modulating systems run at highest efficiency when modulating at or near their lowest speeds (effectively making the coils oversized for the amount of heat they actually need to exchange).

So if your average heating loadRate at which heat must be added to a space to maintain a desired temperature. is around the minimum-modulated output, it can work out well, but if your peak load is below its minimum modulation, it becomes very sub-optimal." When average loads fall below the minimum modulated output, he says, the system begins to lose efficiency to standby power use and surges in power consumption at startup and short-cycling. Similarly, minisplits that are more than 1.5 times as big as they need to be to meet peak loads will see a loss of efficiency, while below that they will operate at near optimal efficiency. He suggests that Goodwin take a look at the Lenox XP25 or the Carrier Greenspeed. Keep in mind, though, Dorsett adds, that they're more expensive options than "right-sized" ductless systems and come with distribution losses that ductless systems don't have. Further, adds Semmelhack, Goodwin should be able to use a high-MERV filter in any of the low-static minisplit systems on the market.

"Again," he writes, "it's a matter of system design/installation, and carefully accounting for the various parts of the system, including filters." Although Goodwin has yet to pin down heating and cooling loads, he describes a house with 2x6 walls filled with blown-in cellulose plus 2 3/4 inches of rigid polyisocyanurate insulation, an attic with 20 inches of cellulose, and insulation in both the foundation walls and floor. Given these parameters, Dorsett adds, the heating load should be less than 20,000 Btu/hour, and could be less than 15,000 Btu/hour with good windows. This, he says, makes a two-ton, high efficiency ducted heat pump "a bit silly." The Fujitsu 18,000 Btu/hour model would more than cover Goodwin's needs. An alternative would be a pair of floor units connected to a common compressor. A dual-head unit might not be quite as efficient as the "best-in-class perfectly implemented" two-ton ducted model, but the installed cost would be less than half. Goodwin could spend the difference on rooftop solar, which would probably pay for most or all of the heating and cooling bill.

We ran this one by Peter Yost, GBA's technical director, and here's what he had to say: I am going to focus on the aesthetics of interior head in my response, just because people’s perceptions when it comes to technology fascinate me. So, I sent out the following email to about a dozen or so colleagues and friends with the photo that you see at the top of the column: This may seem "mysterious," but please take a look at the attached photo and reply to me with whatever aesthetic considerations come to mind from the image. When you reply, THEN I can share with you the nature of my request. Nothing scary, embarrassing, or illegal, and there are no correct or incorrect replies. All is relevant and correct, whether positive or negative in nature. You can see that I was trying hard not to prejudice the issue of minisplit head aesthetics. When subjects of this “survey” responded, I sent them this followup e-mail: I have been asked to comment on a Green Building Advisor blog in which an older couple thinks that the interior minisplit head (that white box on the right-hand wall is a conditioned air delivery system) looks homely.

So, I thought it would be interesting to ask folks from different walks of life and who have had longer and shorter walks (older and younger folks) how much they really noticed the head in a nice-looking kitchen with a lot of different aesthetics along the “old” and “new” lines. Just to see how much, unprompted, their eye was drawn to or affected by this homely head. Now that you know the nature of the issue, if you still have interest, you can let me know what you think of the head, knowing that was the “target” aesthetic question. And now for the results: I got 12 responses, with respondents varying in age from about 30 to 65. The sample size was just too small to claim any differences in response based on age or their area of expertise (which ranged from building professionals to a sculptor). Only 3 of 12 respondents mentioned anything about the interior minisplit head, and two of those three were more concerned with the “distracting” large open wall space just below the head.