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hi can someone tell me the pros and cons of the two? i think ductless is half the cost as central but will it cool the house just as effective? any help would be great. the reason i ask is the properties i am looking at does not come with central air and would like to know if i do plan on purchaing the house how much of a headache will i have to get a central/ductless unit in there. thanks in advance.
i have ductless mini splitters installed and i LOVE them. just make sure you have enough BTUs to cool the area you have installed. there are 2 kinds of ductless. one just cools (cheaper) and one that does heat and cooling. you will have very little work done if you go ductless.
People have been using ductless for many years in this country. If you are going to do every room in your home with the split systems it very well could be more expensive than the central AC. The units are kind of bulky if the rooms are big they aren't as obtrusive. Also the exterior of your house will have the conduits for the copper lines to each unit. If you have a wide open floor plan on a 3 bedroom house you would probably get away with 5 units. IMO if possible the central AC for a whole house is alot better as every room is cool at around the same temp bathrooms included. I remember have a cool bedroom and hall and taking a shower in the summer. I would be sweating as soon as I turned off the water and I'd have to rush out to hall/bedroom to cool off. For an extension or if you are going to have window units in bedrooms I'd say split systems are the way to go but, for entire house central AC is best.
I would agree with Galacia - it's nice to have the bathrooms and closets cooled down. Aren't the in-room air handlers just as obtrusive as a window unit ?
I live in an older home and a CAC wasn't a viable option since we didn't have existing ductwork. The CAC would be more obtrusive because I would sacrifice closet space running duct work to the lower levels. Also from what I understand there is air loss through the duct work which make the systems less efficient.
The in-room air handlers are not as obtrusive as windows AC or even through wall ACs because there is NO NOISE. The are also mounted pretty high up and I also have the option of using them for heat on the cooler days - which is nice when I don't want to heat the whole house or if my wife is just cool in the room she is in. I also feel the split systems are more efficient because you can just cool or heat individual rooms. While its nice to have air conditioned closets do you really need that? Also how do you do that? by putting vents in a closet? Incidentally my closets also get cool when the split is on in the room I am in. Also do you want to pay to running a large 36k or 48k condenser for a whole house when you can use smaller 7k, 9k or 12k for just the rooms that you are in?
There are many brands of split ACs on the market. The best are probably Mitsubishi, Daikin and Fujitsu for reliability, efficiency and parts being readily available. I went with Fujitsu. Check out the RLS2 line with SEER ratings in the mid to high 20s - which is pretty awesome ratings. My parents put this in their house in PA mostly for heat. They were using electric baseboard heat prior. These units are up to 4x as efficient as electric baseboard (depending on outside air temp). They literally dropped their heating bill in half this winter and also were more comfortable since they keep the temp higher now. They also have the benefit of AC on the warmer days.
The Fujitsu condensers are quiet as well - I never know they are on other than the room being comfortable. I installed 5 air handlers attached to three condenser units in my house and can cool off the entire house because of they way their are positioned, but since it is only two of us we usually just have the one on in the room that we are in. I have no way to directly compare to a CAC since we never had it, but I imagine it costs less to run the splits than a CAC.
I hardly use it for heat. We have a steam gas with radiators in the house, but it is nice to have these units as a backup in case the boiler breaks down. Its also good on not so cold days to just get the chill out of a room. They cool and heat up a room quickly and silently.
Also if you are concerned with the appearance of the air handlers they make ceiling drop in cartridges that are easier to install in drop ceilings, but can also be installed in regular sheet rock/plaster ceilings. Since this would have been an extra expense I did the wall units.
That is my experience. Either way CAC or Split you are going to have a much better experience of Window/In Wall units. I had an in wall unit in my apartment in Queens - it was like sleeping with jet engine flying in your room!
Simple. If you are a married man- CAC. Go the cheaper way with the split units and though at first your bride will love the coolness sooner or later the drip will start. "They are ugly (drip). Maybe we should've gotten the central (drip). The kitchen is hotter then the den(drip). I have to dust the tops of these stupids things on the wall (drip).
Thank goodness everything is easily accessible to be fixed and cleaned easy with a split. I'm not sure how you clean inside all that duct work in a CAC system. Oh here is some helpful information in case you get a funny smell in your AC unit:
Also how do you clean the dust that gets blown inside your duct work? Hope no one in your house has allergies.
If you have too much moisture intrusion or your vents aren't properly insulated you may get condensation behind your walls. (unseen drip) Good luck with your eventual black mold problem! (drip) Make sure you get a reputable contractor that can properly install vents into preexisting walls. (drip) From a quick search on the Net. Here is how to deal with a dripping problem if it ever happens with a CAC (drip):
As you can see all systems has positives and negatives. All systems require maintenance to keep it trouble free. If my Split AC ever starts dripping I'm glad I can get to the connections easily to tighten or fix the dripping problem. (drip)
Not an installer or expert. Just giving the poster what he wanted - an opinion of the pros and cons of both system mostly from the split perspective. I also grew up in a house with CAC. I don't have a horse or drip in this race! lol
I looked into a CAC system and it didn't sense for me with my older home (built in the 20s) to rip apart plaster walls to replace it with sheet rock and deal with the mess of installation.
Why do I have to live in two rooms. I can cool my entire house by putting on all the units, but why should I cool a guest bedroom or office that we dont plan on using that day?
Just like you can shut vents in certain rooms (but from what I understand most CAC installers dont recommend this too often) I can have each room at a different temp, but in my case I just set the unit.
Im glad you are happy with your CAC - most people are and if I lived in a house with one I probably would be also. With that being said I don't regret install the splits for one minute.
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