Mini-splits actually heat and cool. They allow individuals and homeowners to control the temperatures in rooms and spaces. These systems have two main components. These components are an outdoor compressor/condenser, and an indoor air-handling unit, also known as an evaporator.
Can Ductless Mini-Split Units Provide Heating and Cooling?
The simple answer is yes, they can provide both heating and cooling. The more complicated answer involved some discussion of the comparisons between heat pumps and more traditional heating methods, such as boilers and gas furnaces.
How Does a Heat Pump Work?
Like traditional heat pumps, ductless mini-splits connect an indoor air handling unit to an outdoor compressor/condenser. Unlike a heat pump, however, the indoor air handler is directly installed into the room/zone rather than needing the extra ductwork system to transfer the conditioned air into the rooms of your home.
While furnaces generate heat, heat pumps use the existing heat energy that can be found in the air using refrigerant. You may be wondering how a heat pump can provide heat when it’s cold out. A traditional A/C unit works by removing heat from your indoor spaces and transferring the heat outdoors to your condenser unit.
A heat pump essentially reverses this process so it can remove heat from the outdoor environment and transfer that heat indoors. It uses the same principals of an air conditioner, using extremely cold refrigerant to absorb heat from the outdoor environment. If the refrigerant is even colder than the air outdoors, heat energy can be absorbed since heat naturally flows from a warmer body to a colder body (2nd Law of Thermodynamics). Remarkably, a heat pump can absorb heat even when it is freezing outside (as low as -4 °F).
Still, the colder it gets outside, the harder your heat pump will have to work. Many people with heat pump systems report troubles with heating the home when temperatures drop below freezing (around 32 °F). For areas that frequently experience freezing temperatures, you may want to consider a backup heating system. In places like Northern California, however, you probably only need a heat pump.
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