Community Chat

[winter girl]

are they worth the huge cost?  Cost of oil versus the high electric bill to run them.  In need of opinions.

[shoesnbags]

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@winter girl wrote:

are they worth the huge cost?  Cost of oil versus the high electric bill to run them.  In need of opinions.

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OK, I'll bite.  What are mini splits? (I live in a very warm climate where heating is not an issue.)

[scatcat]

I live in cold climate and have never heard of them. 

[winter girl]

They are combination heaters/AC units.

[Magicrat]

I've had one installed in the back room of my house.  It's always cold/hot in there because we have radiators and by the time the heat gets there, it's not heat.  Anyway, works great in the summer for A/C.  However, in the winter if the temp goes below 20 it doesn't heat.  We didn't know that or we would have gotten a unit that could have been modified, because, believe me, it goes way below 20.  In that case, we use a different form of heating for whatever period of time it's that cold.

[Mom2Dogs]

@shoesnbags They are heating and air conditioning units (large unit outside) small unit on the wall in the house.

 I think they are typically used where you need additional heat and air in homes (like ours) that do not have a furnace.  

We looked into these units many years ago, they were quite expensive and the way our upstairs was laid out we would need at least 3 wall units upstairs.  

We have a traditional wall unit aircondiioner that cools our family room and living area, so until that dies we will just use that.   We also have a window unit in our master bedroom.

[Magicrat]

By the way, forgot to say it is much less expensive to run one as opposed to a room heater or air conditioner.

[geezerette]

I have one in a guest apartment.  But that isn't the same as doing a whole house, if that's what you're referencing.  I do have an all electric home.

I don't have "huge" electric bills.  But I don't live in a northern climate.

[kaydee50]

We were considering installing ductless air conditioning in a prior home because it did not have central AC and we thought it would be cheaper than installing ducts.  Did not know these systems also provide heat??  

Can't advise because we sold the house before we had decided.  I would do a lot of homework and get several estimates.  It obviously would depend on where you live and what your climate is.

Good luck!

[J Town Girl]

We had a Mitsubishi Split Unit installed in 2018.  Our home is one level and we have units in four of the rooms.  We absolutely love it.  

We formerly had baseboard heating in all of our rooms and it really didn't keep the rooms as warm as we would have liked.  Now with the split unit the rooms are all toasty warm in the winter.  The air conditioning part of the unit is wonderful.  It works beautifully to cool our whole house during the warmest day. 

We live in the PNW and don't really get that cold of winters but our summers have begun to get quite warm and with this unit our house stays nice and cool during the hottest days.  

I would highly recommend these units.  I would go with only the Mitsubishi though. They have a few other makes but I wouldn't recommend them.  

I think you would be quite pleased if you choose to go that route.  The whole system isn't inexpensive but it's worth it.