Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I am in route to making a choice on heating upgrade in our ADU/MIL. Currently, it has 6 or so cadet heaters and they are lousy. Noisy and electricity hogs.
Suggestion was made to me to go with mini split heat pump system, as ADU has no ductwork and I'd rather not fork for such an extensive/expensive remodel.
My question is to ACTUAL mini split system users. I read all the reviews online, thank you - I want to know from the real life folks.
How noisy are air handlers? They sure do have fans inside, right?
When I stayed in Japan for about a month, my apartment had a mini-split heat pump (I think it was a Fujitsu) directly across from the bed in the tiny "bedroom". This was winter, so I had it running in heat mode most of the time I was there and fan noise was noticeable, but not jarring.
Lots of folks have installed them in vacation homes that used to have window A\C units, much quieter. I have stayed with friends that use them in such situations year round
That said, the units are most designed to run the air handler A LOT. There are filters inside that need to be cleaned too, even if that means climbing up a ladder. The units are NOT well suited to "set back" operations -- that forces the "brains" inside to run in "maximum demand" mode after the house has heated up all day and this is super inefficient. If the home is poorly insulted the air handler will never kick the compressor down into the lower speed more efficient modes and in the winter if will end up running the back-up resistance heat coils and THAT is very costly.
Ok, thank you. Anything is cheaper than cutting walls and running ducts into them for formal HVAC. We have heat pump in main house and it runs quite often anyway, but it's a 4 000 sf 2 story with vaulted much of everything. Winters are not that cold here in Pac NW but to me, advantage of heat pump is it works both ways, as AC and heater.
MIL is normal well built house. Previous owner family lived there while building the main house. Guy was a builder, everything appears to be good quality and craftsmanship.
Not sure why he chose cadet heaters but maybe it was good choice for then electricity prices. They don't work worth a flip.
Ok, thank you. Anything is cheaper than cutting walls and running ducts into them for formal HVAC. We have heat pump in main house and it runs quite often anyway, but it's a 4 000 sf 2 story with vaulted much of everything. Winters are not that cold here in Pac NW but to me, advantage of heat pump is it works both ways, as AC and heater.
MIL is normal well built house. Previous owner family lived there while building the main house. Guy was a builder, everything appears to be good quality and craftsmanship.
Not sure why he chose cadet heaters but maybe it was good choice for then electricity prices. They don't work worth a flip.
If you have cheap hydro-electric power maybe it makes sense to run these "full tilt" to keep the space warm, but that won't help in the summer, and it won't do anything for air quality either...
We had a Mitsubishi "Mr. Slim" unit in our MBR/sitting room (maybe 400sf) at the other house and it was very quiet, much quieter than any fan I have ever had. There was a slight "tick" sound associated with the vents swinging back and forth. Place the outside compressor carefully, it is far louder than the head unit. From our bedroom, on the second floor, I could hear the unit kick on, even though I could barely hear the unit head in our room. I am a VERY light sleeper and this was in a very quiet area, with no road or night noise.
It worked as heat down to about 15° (without resorting to resistive setting) and the A/C worked fine to keep the room quite cool. We had a string of days near 100° and it worked well.
I didn't like the wall thermostat, it didn't have enough settings available. The remote was fine but didn't have any way to set it to run for a certain time and then shut off. The way the unit is designed to work, really, is just to set it to a certain temp and let it keep that temp, using heat or A/C. That isn't what I wanted, though.
We put ours in maybe 7 years ago and they were seriously expensive then, I believe they have come down quite a bit in price.
It didn't make much of a noticeable dent, it was down in the "noise floor" of normal bill variation - how often I ran the dryer made a bigger difference. On the other hand, it was not our only heat, we had radiant floors, too. In the summer it was our only form of cooling.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
