Mini-Split air conditioners

[thrasherfox]

Does anyone have any experiance with mini-spli aircontiioners?

We have a second story that is an add on and does not have central air or heating.

We have two bedrooms upstairs and each room has a wall airconditioner (window A/C built into the wall) and we have a gas heater.

We had a guy come out and told us if we put a mini-split A/C system with the heater option it would be way more efficient than what we have and is even more efficient than a traditional a/c unit.


Anyone have any experiance? advice?

 

[zukracer]

no but we are looking at a place that doesnt have central AC so I'm kinda interested in whatcha find out

 

[NickSully]

If you're talking about these I have some experience:

Ductless A/C units

I've used them to cool server rooms in different buildings over the years when on a budget or used them as backup A/C units when specking out a large server room. The new ones out are really efficient and are very cost effective for what they are.

We just upgraded the one in our server room at our main building. The room is a 10 x 10 closet that we had to completely fill a server rack plus additional switches and routers. We originally had a 3/4 ton mini a/c unit in there that would run all the time when the rack was just half full. Now that mini would start to shut off every few days because it was old and never got to rest. The room would get to about 160 before the temperature alarms would kick in on the servers and things would start shutting down. That tells you how much heat is being outputted in that room.

We upgraded to a 1.5 ton A/C unit and that thing works so well. It will run for most of the afternoons when it's above a 100 here until about 4 o'clock and then shutdown for 30 minutes or so until the room heats back up to 72. The only problem I could see with one would be that it only outputs air to the immediate area to my knowledge so I'm not sure how it would work for multiple rooms unless you're planning on putting one in each room.

 

[xzvs]

you can run multiple evaporators off of one condensing unit -- they are quiet efficient and not intrusive (like a central unit). Most come with remote controls and you can aim the air coming out of them with it.

 

[nitrousjunkie]

Thats all we have over here Ron,they work pretty good,go with the Mitsubishi brand.

 

[djsin]

yeap they work great, used to live in a house with them

 

[zukracer]

anyone got some links to these units?