The first and most obvious reason not to put off your ductless installation is comfort.  Sure you could put off the installation until the fall, but even if it might save you a few hundred dollars you should ask yourself whether it might still be worth it to have comfortable cool air filling your home all summer.  Break it down by day, and assume for example that there might be 50 days where you will use your ductless minisplit system and suddenly the per day cost of comfort is not so bad.

Dig a little deeper and there may be even more compelling financial reasons to install ductless now instead of waiting.  If the alternative is using expensive energy consuming window boxes, you may end up saving part of the additional cost by installing an energy-efficient ductless system – minisplits being even more effective.

One tip: If you wait just a little while into summer – wait out the spring and the first few hot days of summer, you may find that so many people (who did not read this post!) have decided to put off their ductless installation in order to save money that you might actually find a minisplit (or non-split) installer who will give you almost the same price as s/he would have in the fall or winter.

1. Ductless Central Air is more expensive to operate

Actually, ductless systems, both minisplit and not split, can cut your home heating and cooling costs by 30% if you choose an EnergyStar model.

2. Ductless is only for homes without duct work

Actually, since homes that have ductwork lose so much cool air due to leaks and poorly designed ductwork, some people with ductwork install ductless systems for increased efficiency

3. Ductless is only a form of air conditioning.

Actually, ductless systems can deliver both home heating and cooling.  For the reason listed above, many people have their ductless system manage both heat and cooling.

4. Ductless and ductless mini-split is so new it has not been proven

Actually, Ductless systems for both heating and cooling have been around for 25+ years and the technology has been perfected.

Generally, each large area you need to cool will need its own ductless air handler - no matter what the BTUs, if there are many doors and walls blocking your air, the ac will not reach an entire floor.  Then again, if your home has a highly open floor plan you may be able to cool a whole floor with a system that has enough BTUs.  A floor that basically has two areas will require a dual zone ductless air conditioning system, while a floor that has three areas will need a triple zone system.  The complicated part of this interplay between zones and BTUs is that you need to find the optimal amount of each to be sure you are using the least energy and getting the lowest energy bill.

Don’t confuse the number of ductless air handlers with the idea of mini split systems.  The former just means taking cool air from a source and directing it in different directions, while the mini-split means actually having separate sources of cool air to begin with.

1. Cost of ductless: Ductless systems may cost about 25% or so more than conventional systems if your home does in fact have ductwork.  And of course if you only have a small area to cool, window boxes are less expensive.  Of course if you have a home where window box air conditioners are not enough, and you have no ductwork, a ductless system may be your only choice.

2. Appearance: The indoor part of the ductless system is larger than the very small indoor part of a conventional central air conditioning system.  This indoor part of a ductless central air system looks like an add-on, not a built-in part of your furnace.

3. Importance of size: It is a bit of a fine art to make sure that the ductless system is the right size for the size of your home and space to be cooled.  Too large and the system can be expensive and prone to break down, and too small and you will not get the desired effect.

These are the primary disadvantages of ductless systems, though for homes without ductwork these systems may still be the best and perhaps only option for comfortable and reliable central air.

Does the above make a ductless system installation worthwhile?  In most cases it depends.  For those who cannot otherwise have central air conditioning, a ductless system is the only solution and thus the cost not only is warranted as far as bringing comfort to the home, but also for increasing resale value.  For those who could have other forms of central air, a ductless minsplit system that provides zone heating and cooling can reduce both electric and oil/gas bills because of the efficiency of the zones.  In this case the money saved on the ductless system can add up.  Finally, at the point when a home’s more conventional form of heating and/or cooling gives out, replacement with a ductless system may not cost much more than replacement with a conventional system and because of zoning, tax rebates, or just the look and feel of ductless may be a great choice.

There are many factors to consider when choosing the best ductless central air conditioning system for your home, including the square footage of the area(s) you will be cooling, climate data for your region, how well insulated your home is, and how well air flows from room to room.  All of the answer to these questions will guide you on the type, strength, and number of “mini-splits” your ductless installations will require.

For example, ductless systems have their cooling output measured in BTUs, just like window boxes.  You can fairly easily determine, whether using online tools or asking an HVAC expert how many BTUs you will need for a certain square footage, though it can become complicated when the area you are trying to cool is actually separate rooms because you have to know how well air flows between them.  In addition, the amount and effectiveness of your home’s insulation will be a factor in determining the strength of your ductless system, given that any wasted energy will have to be factored in.

Ductless systems can be split, with lines running to different rooms, so you do need to determine how many splits you want – more splits can make for more comfortable air conditioning, but it is also more expensive.  In a related way, you may actually need more than one air handler in a single room if the room is large or you’d prefer not to necessarily split the ductless system but rather have the air flow out of one place.

Finally, with ductless central air conditioning systems you need to consider aesthetics – do you want your air vents mounted on your walls or on your ceiling,  and what do you want them to look like?

Ductless Central Air Conditioning Systems, including minisplit systems, provide a wide variety of options, and an educated consumer will have the best chance to get the best fitting system for their home and their money.

So, what do the ductless central air conditioning systems look like on the inside of the room?  Actually, there are often many choices.  Wall mounted ductless vent units can be made with customized front panels that match the home decor.  They can even be made to look like picture frames. Ceiling venting units for your ductless system can be installed in many ways, including being suspended or recessed.  Similar to skylights, ceiling units can be recessed in a way that makes them partially concealed.

There can be cost differences between ceiling and wall mounted ductless vents, and in some cases your HVAC installer may recommend one or the other depending on your particular set-up and the underlying construction of your house.  Sometimes it can make a difference whether you are installing a ductless split system that will cover different zones, or just a single system that will cover one area.

So, for the homeowner who is considering adding a sunroom, building an addition, finishing a basement, changing a porch into a three or four season room, converting a garage, etc, a previously installed ductless minisplit system will allow for the addition of these new rooms quite easily.  Splitting existing ductwork and losing effectiveness and power, as is the case with conventional central air conditioning, is not an issue with ductless.

Ductless systems provide maximum future flexibility for the homeowner who is going to add to or change their home, while also providing quiet and comfortable cooling in the meantime.  They are even easy to reduce in scope if the homeowner feels that the system has grown to large or that cooling is no longer needed in all of the parts of the home it currently reaches.

Already you would be saving money on your ductless system already, given that you don’t have to use it to cool your entire house at the same time and can zone it instead.  But ductless central air conditioning systems are also energy efficient in their general operation.  Conventional ductwork loses much of its efficiency as it’s cooling radiates out of the ducts before it reaches it’s destination.  For example, imagine metal ducts running through a hot attack – the cool air is fighting against the hot ait just outside the ducts before reaching the room to be cooled!  Your ductless system will be more energy efficient than many other central air conditioning systems, and is certainly more efficient (and elegant!) than window boxes.

Given that the primary disadvantage of ductless air conditioning systems are cost, the fact that money can be saved through increased efficiency is a significant advantage!

To all of you, welcome to ductless.net!  We do not directly sell ductless systems.  We are here to provide information and advice, and we also hope to share the stories of those who choose to install ductless in their home.  Thanks for visiting!  Ductless central air conditioning is beginning to take off as more and more people realize the potential to have central air in their homes.  Many homes do not have ductwork, and therefore many home owners have been told that their home would not be a good candidate for ductless central air conditioning.

Now comes easy to install, highly efficient, and very dependable ductless central air conditioning. A good installer can finish installation in about a week – giving you time to foresee a heatwave and have ductless installed in time!

Please check back often as we update this blog – our suggestion is to check in long before next spring when prices go up and installers get busy!