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Hello, CD knowledgeable folks. We're thinking about installing central air in a 2000 sq ft dormered cape in the New England near the ocean. House was built in the early '60s, has baseboard hot water gas heat. No existing air ducts. We prefer central air to minisplits (would need a minimum of 6, and two would have to be pretty strong, for largish kitchen and largish front-to-back living room/dining area), because we really need the A/C to dry the house, as much as to cool it. We have big issues with high humidity here, being within a quarter mile of the ocean to the south, east, and west, so I'd like to be able to use the A/C to cool dry the house out, in addition to cooling it. For that reason, I think that central air would be better for us than minisplits, even though we'd have to install ductwork. Any advice?
Humidity probably won't matter one way or the other.
You'll be stuck with the big wall mounted console in multiple rooms, as well as multiple outdoor units.
I'd go with the standard central A/C unit. Split systems are really great where you have one room (like an addition), or if you have a lot of rooms that need separate temperature control (like multiple offices in a one story office building).
I'd say go with central as well. It sounds as if you may have to run some exposed ducting to keep tear-in and remodeling to a manageable cost, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing. I'd prefer to see some "pretty" ductwork than splits looming off the walls.
If the house is sitting on a basement or crawl, this would be a fairly straight foreword install. Airhandler and ductwork is in basement- vents/boots will be in the floor of the main living level.
Capes usually have kneewall attic spaces front and rear- this space can be used for a horizontal airhandler and ductwork can run from one end to the other to service the two or three rooms on the upper level. It will probably be harder getting a dedicated circuit for the blower to the attic, than installing the system.
Doing two separate systems is probably easier/faster than doing a zone system; and having to possibly give up closet space/floor space for a shaft to run duct from the basement/crawl to the attic. And there's usually little to no attic overhead in a cape- it's mostly behind the kneewalls.
My Mitsubishi mini split is now 13 years old and is a marvel of efficiency and quiet operation, keeping my 600 sf master suite cool and heated for pennies per month. I"m going to replace my inefficient central air with the recessed ceiling units in the main house in the future.
My Mitsubishi mini split is now 13 years old and is a marvel of efficiency and quiet operation, keeping my 600 sf master suite cool and heated for pennies per month. I"m going to replace my inefficient central air with the recessed ceiling units in the main house in the future.
I run Mitsubishi mini-splits as well. There was no ductwork in my house and the basement is almost entirely finished- so it would be a nightmare to do central. I love the things. Super quiet and they work for heat and cooling. And they're cheap to operate.
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