I had the HVAC guy out Monday for an estimate on installation and it’ll be $1500. My unit should be delivered the beginning of August and I’m tentatively on his schedule for 8/6.
StG
Is that ground mount or hanging off the outside wall? How many inside units?
Is he doing the full install?
Does that including the piping, channels and other parts or do you need to have that all on hand for him?
That’s including a slab (not mounted on the side of the house). The unit I bought is a dual unit and the installation includes the electrical work both to the box and to the inside unit. The lines are pre-charged with coolant, so he just has to vacuum the lines. I bought the attractive conduit to hide the lines, but he’ll install that.
StG
Thank you so much. Good figures to add to my future decisions.
Our apartment on Saipan had one 20+ years ago. No need for heat, so I don’t know if it had that.
Worked well. One word of warning. Water from the indoor unit dripped down the wall. (Not at all techy, so I don’t know where it came from.) Except, it dripped down the wall inside the paint. We had to pop a hole in the paint that bulged out from the wall and put a bowl under it. (Landlord really didn’t care much.) 20+ years later, if I hear water dripping inside a building, like from a small decorative water fountain, I panic for a second, thinking it’s been a long time since I emptied the bowl.
Be certain that drainage/condensation is accommodated.
CelticKnot - Modern units come with a condensation drainage tube.
In other news, the unit I ordered on the 14th will be delivered Monday, 3 weeks earlier than I thought.
StG
Crappy, careless installation overcomes modern design.
Our installers are arriving on Monday. Will report back soon.
Several minor experiences:
We got a quote for having these installed for our 3 bedroom house, which has one large combination living room and kitchen, and also one basement office. Seventeen thousand dollars. It was way higher than I anticipated. I think it was Mitsubishi.
My neighbor got one and mostly installed it himself. It has a single cooling head in an area that somewhat reaches his entire living floor in his ranch house. He paid one thousand two hundred dollars, much less than a tenth of my quote. He thinks it’s great. Brand was Alpine.
My spouse works in a building cooled by these (I don’t know the brand). They regularly spray water over the offices and people have various covers on different things to handle the falling water. I think she tells me about refrigeration people coming to fix things more than monthly.
I have a two-hose “portable” air conditioner in my downstairs office now. It was five hundred dollars and makes the space very comfortable. It happens to be in the way because of the room layout but I may be able to greatly improve this if I make a stand for it so I can move it just two or three feet. However, I had a one-hose “portable” that gave a kind of miserable result, which in retrospect I think I should have expected. Once you understand the gigantic corner they cut to turn two-hose into one-hose, you’ll never consider a one-hose, and I think they give “portable” units an undeserved bad name. Note, though, you can’t portage these things, as they are quite heavy. They are very easily relocated for storage (such as rolling it into a closet for the winter), but you couldn’t carry them from room to room as your cooling needs vary.
About five years ago, when Mrs R and I realized that after we retired, we’d be spending a lot of time at home, we had a heating company install a Daikin “mini-split” system in our house. We put one head unit in the living room, one in the dining room, and one in the master bedroom. The base unit sits out back of the house, with the wring to it running through the garage. Each head unit has two refrigerant hoses, a drain line (plastic pipe), and an electrical bundle running to it, so we had to devote a little thought to where to put the heads so that the raceway carrying those things wouldn’t be too obtrusive. Fortunately, we were able to arrange things so that the raceways ran through closets.
It was, if I recall correctly, about $11K. Best money I’ve ever spent.
Only problem we’ve had was that one of the little motors that moves the louvers failed about three months in; the heating company replaced it under warranty, and since then (knock on wood) it’s run flawlessly.
Rocketeer - What were you doing for heat and air before the mini split?
StG
Heat is supplied by an oil furnace and hot-water baseboards (troublesome), and we didn’t have air conditioning before buying the mini-split.
Do these mini-split systems work only as A/C or will they heat as well? I get these mixed up with heat pumps.
There are systems that do both.
Our system is both. But they have an outside temp limit (I think around 15 degrees) where they stop working so we’ll be depending on our oil heat with the split as a supplement.
My unit arrived yesterday and my HVAC guy bumped me up to Friday! I can’t wait!
StG
We are doing that also because the oil heat system is already there. There are units which can still maintain heat at lower temperatures, but for a higher initial and operating cost.
What we had recently installed was in an addition, it provides heat and A/C, and I will be using a zone from the oil burner in the old house to add some radiant floor heating in the addition. Eventually I’ll add split units to provide A/C and heat in the old house, remove the baseboards there and add radiant floor heating there as well. With the oil burner using it’s own thermostats I can choose which heat to favor in the winter based on cost.
It’s installed and running! The house is cool and quiet on a very hot day. I have to pull the last of the window units out and get rid of them but right now it’s money (unfortunately, a lot of it) well spent.
Outstanding.
We’ve got an in-law suite that we outfitted with Mitsubishi ductless heat/ac. The AC is tremendous. Sometimes the heat has a little trouble keeping up, but we’re north of Boston, and it’s a drafty house. I sealed up a big picture window downstairs and it helped a lot.
Our electric bill is certainly higher than before - they’re not cheap to run, but overall I’ve been very happy with them. I’d love to put them in the rest of the house, but my wife doesn’t like the aesthetics, so we’ll stick with what we’ve got - forced hot air and window units for AC.
If you have specific questions, feel free to IM me.
ETA they’re very, very quiet.