I have a rental property about 1400sft about 40yrs old. The house has no central air or heat. It has baseboard heat that is the same age of the house. (but works fine) I am looking into putting in a ductless ac/heat unit. It is a normal split level home. bedrooms on top floor, intermediate floor has dining room and kitchen and bottom floor has den and bathroom....I would say 500sqf on bottom floor, 500sq on intermediate floor and 500sq on top floor for a ruff estimate. I am thinking about a system like this.... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EA833XS/ref=twister_B01EO6L95U?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 Putting 1 unit on each floor but using a celling unit on the top/upper floor in the hallway. (with an 8way vent hoping it would get in each bedroom....(the bedrooms are small) I had a central air company come out Friday ...they are going to have my quote for me tomorrow...I am sure it will be between 7k and 12k...as house has no duct work ....etc. (a lot of drilling and cutting involved) Any HVAC guys got any insight on ductless units?? I am located in charlotte.... Thanks for any insight!
They're great, just put one in our upstairs about 6 months ago. No duct work involved, just running the lines on the outside wall to the compressor. Didn't have any cutting involved, just drilling to run the lines through the wall, unit indoor mounted on the wall near the ceiling. Very efficient and they work well.
The only problem I see is with the split levels. The air or heat will have to feed the upper units by gravity. Kind of like a fireplace in your living room. It will bake you out of that room while the farther away rooms get much less heat. Might not be a huge deal because you already have baseboard heat. Is this more for AC?
Sorry....I didn't notice the part where you said one unit on each floor. That would make a huge difference. But the cost for 3 units might be close to one central unit. I would rather have a furnace/central air than three separate units. I'll bet three units will use up more energy also.
One compressor and three handlers, J Braun can confirm but these units are very efficient. Also no need to run ductwork which is why we put one in upstairs as there wasn't a good way to run the ductwork. Ours does cooling and heating, keeps the bedroom cool and the adjoining rooms more than tolerable.
How many rooms does your upstairs unit "service"? The handler upstairs would need to handle 3 bedrooms....with the ceiling unit located centrally in a hallway...the hallway is very small...
Could the upstairs unit use some minor ducting to direct air into the bedrooms? Without it I'd be afraid all your cool air will fall down the stairs before it goes into the rooms.
Key word : rental property. Does your state require ac? How much is the rent compared to what you are putting in? Is this a nice neighborhood? Does your competition have central air/ nice acs? I would do window ac. Depending on who your tenants are. I have done a couple of those in different units. I went with single units 9k btu instead of the multy. Bought each unit for $450. And it was 400 for the first 2 installs then it got a little cheaper... Btw they have 110v units that they say it's pretty good. I went with 210v
These little vrf systems are very very efficient. The key to installing these is proper line size/piping design. The mfg has guidelines for how far the piping can run after the first tee (really a wye fitting) and still return oil to the compressor. Your installer should have all that info though, and most mfgs will put the pipe system design together for free if the contractor asks them to. Personally (not a designer) i feel like the linked one is undersized... i would want a 1 ton unit on every floor.
Limited on time, so this isn't comprehensive, but I wanted to weigh in. Ductless systems by design are far superior to a "central" system, IMO. There are no duct losses, no noise, and the installation is less invasive and far less disruptive to your home. I would never under any circumstances recommend having ductwork in the attic of a home in a climate that includes cold weather. Socal is a commercial/industrial guy I think, so he referenced VRF. That usually describes huge systems that need to operate across an almost infinite load spectrum. They're far more finicky and complicated than residential ductless split. The units you linked are sensitive to lineset sizing, but not to the degree of VRF. In a residential system, all the linesets go back to the unit and connect to their respective taps. Pretty simple stuff. Although I'm a big fan of ductless, the lower end systems like that Amazon special are complete shit. The quality is poor, and the support and parts availability are even worse. They're dirt cheap, so if you know what you're getting into and you can live with the pitfalls, they may be an option, but don't fool yourself into believing that it's the same as Mitsubishi or Panasonic. It's not even close. Others here are correct about the efficiency. They're far more efficient than most central air systems currently available, and the best part is that they modulate, so load and sizing is not as critical. I agree with Socal on the sizing. Size it for heat, and unlike conventional systems aim a little high versus a little low. The modulating capacity will regulate the system to operate perfectly. Lastly, like everything else in HVAC, the installation is everything. These systems run EEV's so they're super sensitive to contamination and moisture in the system. If you hire a lazy installer, you'll have a very bad experience.
I have the Mitsubishi wall system in my shop office, eight years. Love it. Heats well, cools well, no issues. Has eco modes that work great.
I remember going to Bora Bora 11+ years ago and they had these systems. Worked very well, and you barely knew it was there, and it was good at keeping the room/hut/whatever cool.
Worth noting that among the reasons for going with a nicer unit is serviceability. One of the few drawbacks to ductless is that blower wheels get dirty and moldy and need to be cleaned every year or two. You can learn to do it yourself, hire somebody, or buy this cool apparatus that catches water running out so you can clean it in the unit. I've never tried the last thing but it seems like it would work.
Really just looking to see if a unit that size/makeup would make it half way cool/decent in the home.. I have read that Mitsubishi is the best.. Since it is a rental home I am looking for a slip on and not a full system with custom tune...LOL. Thanks for all the replies
Mitsubishi is great, panasonc is great, LG is entering the commercial market and have very good support and the best warranty (right now) from a large scale side of things. Daikin is also great. They recently purchased goodman mfg so expect to start seeing more Daikin now that they can use their distributor network... Sanyo (sold by Trane) is also pushing to get into the market commercially. I would be comfortable with any of those brands in my own home.
I've got a converted garage and it gets about 10 degrees cooler than the rest of the house. It's the farthest room also from the central air and the duct to the room isn't as big as the normal size. They had to go through the foundation I think so they didn't use the bigger ducts. A plugged in radiator heater works pretty good for now but would it be worth ,ductless, inline duct fan, a smaller unit or seeing about cutting a bigger hole for bigger duct? Electric heat by the way, gas hasn't made it yet to my side.
