Open floor plans are popular in homes and commercial spaces alike. While these layouts offer many benefits, they present some unique challenges for your heating and cooling system. When set up correctly, ductless mini-splits can keep your open floor plan comfortable year-round.
How to Use Ductless Mini-Splits for Your Open Floor Plan?
- Utilize Zones
A ductless mini-split system uses a compressor that attaches to your indoor units. To take advantage of this, your contractor should help you separate the building into zones. For example, in a standard home, you may want a zone for the great room and home office, with a second zone for the bedrooms and bathrooms. This will allow you to customize how hot or cool each area is, separate from the others.
Open living spaces will likely fall under the same zone. Therefore, set this area to be approximately 70 degrees, as this is the temperature the greatest number of people feel comfortable at.
2. Choose the Right Size
Ductless mini-splits come in various sizes, with larger units providing a higher BTU output. This evaluation refers to how much heat they can remove from the room in an hour.
Generally speaking, a 5,000 BTU unit can cool around 100 square feet. A 10,000 BTU unit can cool up to 450 feet, while a 21,000 BTU unit can cool up to 1,200 square feet. Increase the BTU value by 20% to 30% if the ceiling height is higher than 8 feet, the space is poorly insulated, there are large windows in the room, or the outside climate often reaches higher than 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
3. Skip Small Rooms
The general rule of thumb for ductless systems is to have one unit per room. However, smaller spaces — such as hallways, powder rooms, or small offices — don’t need one as they will get adequate airflow from the larger, adjacent rooms if there is proper ventilation.
4. Choose Unit Style
Ductless mini-split systems consist of two components: an outdoor unit with a condenser and indoor air handlers that circulate the air through the space. An HVAC contractor can install as many indoor units as necessary to maintain a comfortable open-floor space.
Wall-mounted devices are common and can be installed in unobtrusive locations. Another option is a ceiling cassette, which can be concealed entirely. If your open floor plan is busy or decorative, you may prefer this option since it won’t disrupt the flow of the space.
5. Select Unit Locations
Because open floor plans are spacious, installers often elect to install two or more ductless mini-split units to provide even heating and cooling throughout the space. Consider the traffic to each area when determining their locations. One should be installed in the kitchen since it’s important to control humidity levels there.
The air from the kitchen will usually heat or cool a neighboring dining area, but the living area will typically need its own unit. Up to four indoor units can connect to an outdoor unit, which is usually sufficient for a spacious open floor plan.
Comments
Post a Comment