Ductless mini splits are the big thing in air conditioning, and for good reason. They save money, take up less space, and reduce the number of parts (ducts) that need to be serviced and maintained. But how do they work?
It’s all about zoning. Ductless air conditioning in Washington DC allows you to use multiple units across different rooms in your home and control them to fine-tune each room individually, so your bedroom can be 72° while your living room is 76°.
Let’s take a little bit of a deeper dive into how they work so you can understand how they may benefit your family and home.
It Works Like Your AC, Only Better
Mini splits cool the air in your home the same way that a big central AC unit does. Each unit has its own evaporator coil and outdoor exhaust unit, which is mounted to the outside of your home.
The ductless head has an air intake that pulls air from your room, and it pushes out cooler air. Think about the way your AC works but on a smaller scale.
Except without needing ductwork and fans to push that cool air dozens or a hundred feet to your vent, it comes right out of the unit and blows into the room.
You Control Multiple Zones
You like your bedroom to be like a walk-in fridge, but you know that if you turn the AC down too low, it’ll take ages to cool the rest of your home. Maybe your partner doesn’t like it when the kitchen has icy-cold floors, so you reach an impasse when it comes to the thermostat.
With individual heads/units, you can make your bedroom cold as an Alaskan blizzard, while keeping the rest of the home at a moderate temperature. On that note, you won’t pay to cool the entire house and keep it that way–you only have to worry about the cost in that one space, which reduces your bills.
It’s Just as Powerful as Your Central AC Was
British thermal units, or BTUs, are a way that we measure units of energy. Ductless mini splits can produce upwards of 48,000 BTUs, while a central AC usually pushes somewhere in the 40,000 to 50,000 range.
However, one central air conditioner has to handle the entire house. If you even have two heads in your mini split lineup, that’s close to 100K BTUs, and you can always add more. For this reason, some homeowners will opt to cool their entire home with one or two ductless units and call it a day.
It’s Time to Go Ductless
There’s a reason that ductless units are becoming the new norm. They have enough cooling power for most homes, you can add more units onto them later to expand your zone control, and you save money in the process.
No ductwork to test, seal, and clean. No nasty surprises since the entire unit is sitting right in front of you. Ductless has its downsides, sure, but it’s still becoming the clear choice over ducted air conditioning for a reason.
Contact Polar Bear Air Conditioning & Heating Inc. today to schedule your ductless mini split installation as soon as possible.