Ductless mini splits are becoming more and more popular in residential homes. Ductless heating and cooling units offer unique features that may be right for you as well.

Ductless mini splits are available both as “cooling only” air conditioners as well as heat pumps. This means that a single unit installation can provide your home with both heating and cooling. If you’re considering replacing your heating and air conditioning system, a ductless mini split heat pump should be on your list as one of the types of comfort system you should consider.

Ductless Heat Pumps Provide Precise Zone Control

You can heat and cool rooms in your home individually with a ductless system. This is called zone control. Standard AC’s and heaters that use ductwork can be equipped with zone control, but it isn’t built-in; it requires retrofitting the ductwork with dampers and installing new thermostats and sensors. But with ductless mini splits, zone control is automatic! Each of the different air handlers placed around the home can be operated separately from the others. You only need to run the air handlers in the rooms that need comfort.

You Can Expect Significant Energy Savings with a Ductless System

According to the ENERGY STAR Program, ductless systems can reduce cooling costs by 30% compared to a standard air conditioning system. This is because ductless mini splits use more advanced compressors with variable “stages” or “speeds”, something only available in a few very high-end conventional heat pump and air conditioning units. The news is even better for heating costs, where an ENERGY STAR-certified ductless system can reduce heating costs by up to 60% compared to conventional electric heating systems.

So What Kinds of Homes Are Best Suited to Going Ductless?

There are many advantages with ductless mini splits, that most conventional air conditioning systems can’t provide. Here are residential applications that can benefit from “going ductless”:

• Homes with vaulted ceilings or flat roofs with no, or limited attic space that don’t have adequate ducts or the space to retrofit them. If your house has to rely on space heaters and window air conditioners, to help cool and heat certain rooms, going ductless is a great choice!
• Homes that have power-robbing electrical heating systems and inefficient air conditioners.
• Homes with rooms that are frequently empty. This is where the zone control advantage is especially helpful. Multi-zoned ductless heat pumps can heat or cool only the room(s) you are currently or mostly occupy.
• Homes with add-on rooms, sun-rooms aka Arizona rooms, or for people that have additions or renovations planned. It’s many times significantly more cost-efficient to outfit the new spaces with a ductless ac system, than to retrofit or replace an already existing HVAC system that may not otherwise require replacement yet.
• A home that hasn’t been built yet. If you’re planning on building a new home, going with a ductless mini split gives you more design freedom because you won’t have to worry about ducts, not to mention precise comfort in every room.