We’re preparing to buy a house in a walking town, so the house will almost certainly be without ducts and nearly impossible to retrofit cleanly. I don’t want window units or to cut holes in the house for through the wall units.
The Ductless units look like a great solution. It appears 3 holes or 1 big hole through the wall to outside and condenser/compressor that can be racked outside or on the ground raised slight on bricks.
Anyone have these? How do you like them?
Anyone install them, themselves? Is that reasonable? It looks like they come pre-charged with refrigerant.
Any top quality brands to look for?
For small computer rooms it seemed like Mitsubishi made a reliable unit but those were bigger & expensive.
I was a Navy electrician and comfortable with running electric. I was an HVAC mechanic but cooling water not freon.
My husband installed a couple of these units in his workshop - well, he had it done. Had he been younger, he’d have done it himself, but at 63, he was more inclined to pay someone else to do it.
Two of the units are in the attic over the shop floor and one is on the wall of the office area. Each unit has its own programmable thermostat, and they all work off the same compressor.
I don’t know what brand it is, and I’m not going to run across the yard to check, but he’s had no complaints. They’re actually combined heat and air.
We’re having a Mitsubishi setup installed in a few weeks. One thing that matters is how much space you have on your outside walls to install the head units. Ours are too small, and some will have to be installed on interior walls, which is a slight pain.
I replaced my 12 year old LG AC only units last year that had died with new Daikan heat pumps. We have one compressor with 4 heads and a second with a single head. It’s 90+ degrees today and the whole house is dry and comfortable. In early winter and early spring, we typically turn the boiler off and using the heating mode of the units. The net is we use a little more electricity and a little less gas overall but save money.
I looked at a self-install, but the reality is that if you don’t have the vacuum pumps to suction the lines and a refrigerant handling license it’s not worth it. Some of the cheaper units come pre-charged, but if you have a leak and lose your charge when you open the valve you are back to calling in a professional.
I’m not following this, is the Head Unit the fan & evaporator coil? If so I can see why needing to use an interior wall is a pain.
The more I read, I’m thinking about doing the install except the final hook up. I might be able to get my BIL to do the refrigerant side though. Not sure if he still has access to the equipment. I’ll probably just hire someone for that part though.
I installed my own 15 years ago and love it. Back then the pre-charged units could be installed by the “timing” method. After everything is hooked up you open the valves in a certain sequence and count so many seconds and them shut off the bleed. This is supposed to force all the air out and maybe a small but acceptable amount of coolant. I doubt this method is still legal.
At any rate I do have a vacuum pump and automotive A/C gauge set so I did a normal pump down and leak check.
The only hole I had to make is a 3" hole for the coolant and drain lines and wiring.
Coincidentally, I’m having someone come Monday to give me an estimate on an install. I have a 170-yr old farm house, so no ductwork and limited crawlspace. I’ve been thinking about mini splits for years (see my thread from 2012) but needed to upgrade my electrical first.
I’m thinking of a 18K BTU dual head unit to heat/cool the part of the house I mainly live in. Down the road I can add a 2nd unit if I want to expand.
Had it installed last fall, did a great job heating all winter. Just activated the AC as this heatwave rolls in and it’s fantastic, quiet and cool. We have two units in our addition, one in the great room, one in the bedroom. The compressor has the capacity for two more such units which we want to get into the old part of the house eventually, but that may be stretching the capacity for AC, so a second compressor may be needed for that.
Would have installed the system myself if my knees worked and there were as many models made for self installation as there used to be. I only found a couple of products that were warrantied for self installation last year, I’d seen more than that in the past.
The heat will be an added bonus for us. Our primary heat source remains forced hot water radiators but we only have one zone. This will add 4 zones and allow us to adjust with finer control.
I live in the land of suburban sprawl known as Central Jersey. A walking town is where you can live within a short walking distance of many restaurants, bars, shops and hopefully some mass transit. Maybe even a waterfront like the 2 towns we’re looking at.
I currently live on main street of my town and after a .8 mile walk on a busy road past nothing but houses I reach a pizzeria, a foo-foo deli like place, a gas station market and a pharmacy and maybe a dozen Real Estate & Law offices. Not too fun.
I know in other places, other states especially walking towns are more common but if you live among sprawl, a corner bar sounds like paradise.
Our local example is Red Bank, one of the towns we’re looking at. Hoboken is a great example though it is more city than town. Cape May is possibly the best example in NJ. Monclair & Princeton always rate high as walking towns. Asbury Park is becoming one again. Morristown is another.
Then many Real Estate sites list Walk Scores & Bike Scores for the houses. Though their criteria is not the same as mine and includes walking to supermarkets as part of it.
[jerseyaccent]Hey, we’ve got more exits per square mile than anyone. We’re good.[/ja] We could use more lanes but that’s where more walking towns and town centers would help.
