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I’m ready to ditch the window a/c units, and I am looking at installing a mini-split a/c system in our 100+ year old house.
I had one company come by and look at the situation, and give me an estimate, and to talk about the installation options. I am only looking to cool 2 rooms, one on the first floor, and one upstairs. So it looks like one condenser unit outside, and 2 air handlers inside. The upper room is directly above the lower room.
On the first floor there is room up near the ceiling in only one spot for a wall unit, but for a floor unit there are several spots that would work better than the high wall unit. The guy from the company mentioned they could run the pipes/wires from the condenser outside, through the wall, then under the floor in the basement, and come back up through the floor to connect to the air handler.
I like this idea for the first floor. It puts the air handler in a less obtrusive place, and I think the air will circulate better.
My issue is with the second floor air handler. Generally the pipes/wires run along the outside of the house up to the second floor, covered with some kind of wrapper to hide them. Due to a bay window in the first floor room below, these pipes/wires would have to run up vertically, then make a turn and go horizontally over to the spot to go through the wall. In addition our house has a kind of “waist” (not sure what the term would be) between the first and second floors. The house is sided with cedar shingles, and at the border between the first and second floors, the shingles flare out in a slight curve, and then a moulding and trim board mark the line between the two floors. The pipes/wires from the a/c would have to also bulge out around this bump as they go up vertically to the second floor.
I really feel that this will hurt the look of the house to have this run up basically the middle of one side, bulge over the waist, then turning horizontal.
I recently had the electric service to the house buried underground, instead of coming into the house at the top corner of the house, and this allowed me to remove an unsightly pipe running down the side of the house, so I am very reluctant to add something back that I feel will look even worse.
An idea that I tried mentioning to this a/c company was to run the pipes/wires for the second floor unit into the house, just like the first floor unit into the basement. Then come up through the floor of the first floor room, go straight up to the ceiling and then up through the floor into the second floor room, and then into another floor unit for the upstairs room.
All of the heating and plumbing in this old house is done this way, pipes coming up through the floor in the first floor rooms, into the ceiling, and up through the floor in the second floor rooms. There are no pipes in the walls in this house.
So to me if I could wrap the pipes/wires for the a/c in some kind of floor to ceiling pipe in the first floor room, I would not have anything ugly on the outside of the house, and it could look like just another one of the pipes I already have in every room on the first floor.
I mentioned this to the a/c company, and I wanted the installation guy to come back out and tell me if they think they could do something like this, but they haven’t gotten back to me. They were quick with the estimate, and a contract for me to sign with 50% down, but I am reluctant to get started with anyone if the only option is a zig-zagging conduit in the middle of one side.
I suspect anything that’s not their everyday solution, they will be reluctant to even think about.
Has anyone had any luck getting creative with a mini-split installation?
The issue is I want to run the pipes/wires up to the second floor, through the inside of the house, but not inside the walls. Just a pipe of some sort coming up from the floor of the lower room, going straight up through the ceiling, and up through the floor upstairs.
Seems like the usual installers only want to run the connections along the outside of the house.
"Seems like the usual installers only want to run the connections along the outside of the house."....just like cable/telco installers....take the easy way. If you were to offer to help them do it your way, they may be more receptive. Perhaps you could do the drilling in the floor and ceiling, per their specifications, so they are not responsible if something happens during that process. You could possibly run an over-sized conduit from point A to point B, then all they have to do is fish a pull rope and pull in their plumbing/electrical....(you could even place the pull rope)....then you frame in the conduit to hide it in a chase.
[...] If you were to offer to help them do it your way, they may be more receptive. Perhaps you could do the drilling in the floor and ceiling, per their specifications, so they are not responsible if something happens during that process...
I think you are right, it would definitely help to approach it this way. Thanks for shifting my thinking!
Ever seen houses in the Caribbean? Very high vaulted ceiling that allow the heat to rise; and those that have a/c are split systems mounted up high on the walls- because cool air falls.
"because cool air falls" true, but if aesthetics are a major concern, perhaps a ceiling fan could overcome that....just a thought.
If ceiling fans are an interesting option, or for anyone shopping for ceiling fans, I have purchased several fans from these folks...link....not the cheapest, but they offer a great value in choosing the right fan. I use fans with dc motors, said to use 75% less energy than ac motor fans.
After 6 months, you won't notice the mini-split air handler mounted in the correct spot on the wall up near the ceiling. You don't want to mount one on the floor. It will have lousy air flow.
If you don't like the aesthetics of visible vinyl covers to the A/C lines outside your house, just box it in and shingle it so it's not visible. Where I am in New England, sheet copper to cover it would have a nice patina after a couple of years and look like it was meant to be there.
I have a Fujitsu mini-split A/C. I really screwed up when I bought it. I should have bought a heat pump so I have a backup heat source if the gas boiler somehow fails. When this system eventually dies, I'll replace it with a Mitsubishi heat pump system. My A/C lines have a 7 or 8 foot run from the compressor on the pad up to the air handler with the usual white vinyl covering. It's the side of the house where I only have 10 feet of setback. I really don't care what it looks like. If it were on one of the visible sides of the house, I probably would have removed some sheet rock and run the lines inside the wall. An HVAC installer wouldn't want to do that job so I'd have to bring in a carpenter to open up the wall cavity and drill holes for the A/C lines.
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