Mini Split Air Conditioners: Economical Home Cooling, or Waste of Money?

Perhaps one of the best products ever invented was the air conditioner. Nothing beats the luxury of being able to sit inside on a blistering hot day as the air conditioner bursts forth super cooled air to chill your home. For many years, our only solution was the window unit air conditioners. These loud and often quirky pieces of equipment helped cool you down but were often inefficient in cooling larger areas. You either had to install multiple units or deal with part of your house being uncomfortably warm. Central air conditioners were a great improvement and they do a fairly effective job at cooling the entire house. Nowadays, they are fairly standard in many newly build homes. But, there is a new kid on the block in the world of air conditioners and it is called the mini split.

A mini split represents an entirely new concept in air conditioning technology in that they are ductless. The need for ductless ac looms large as many houses don’t have any space for incorporating the large and bulky duct systems needed for implementing a traditional central air conditioning system. Try to modify an existing house that doesn’t have space for ducts can be incredibly expensive and often result in a cumbersome final design. Mini splits require very little space and are much easier to install.

While traditional central air systems have one unit inside and one unit outside that work together to cool air and force it through the duct system, mini splits feature multiple units throughout the house. Instead of relying on ducts, mini splits feature refrigerant lines that run from a single unit outside to each the additional ones inside. These refrigerant lines cool the air and the indoor unit distributes the cool air throughout the house. Some homes can do well with just one unit while other larger houses may incorporate up to 3 and sometimes even more zones to full cool the house.

So, while the overall cost can be much cheaper than central air systems, you do have to content with multiple indoor units. While they are small, this can be viewed as a negative by some. As far as cooling economically, however, you aren’t likely to find any negatives here. You see, traditional duct systems can be incredibly inefficient because the cooled air is forced through a massive duct system where much of the cooling is lost during its travel to the register in a particular room. With min splits, the coolant travels through extremely efficient refrigerant lines directly to the units that expel the cooled air. Not only will your mini split cost less to install, your ongoing bills should be cheaper as well.

If your home is woefully without ac, then taking some time to investigate mini splits a little more may be just the solution to your sweat covered brow. In one day, and for less than the cost of a full central air system, you can be chilling in style thanks to a newly installed mini split air conditioning system.