Ductless Air Conditioners - Split System Air Conditioners

Ductless or split-system air conditioners, often called mini-split systems, have innumerable potential uses in residential, commercial, and institutional buildings. The most frequently used applications are in those houses or buildings where more than one family lives.

These are retrofit add ons to those homes, which have ductless heating systems as well, such as hydronic or hot-water heating systems, radiant panels, and space heaters that used wood, kerosene, and propane.

They can also be a wise choice for rooms that are just like addons and were thus unplanned and small apartments, where extending or installing distribution ductwork, suddenly for a central air conditioner or heating systems is not practicable at all, since these structures are planned and do not allow much work once the construction is done.

In central air conditioners, furnace's blower transfers air from the room to the unit by return-air ductwork and a filter removes dust, hair, and lint. Air moves past a cold indoor coil, the evaporator, to release heat. This cold air moves to an enclosure, large metal box at the furnace's top and is then transferred to air supply ductwork, back to the room.

Ductless systems, like their counterparts, have two main basic parts, which are an outdoor compressor or condenser, and an indoor air-handling unit. A passage, which connects the outdoor and indoor units, also consists of the power cable, the refrigerant tubing, suction tube, and a condensate drain.

♠ They are small in size and flexible with regards to where it can be placed or which room it should heat or cool.

♠ Most of the models have as many as four indoor air-handling units, precisely for the four zones or rooms connected to one outdoor unit.

♠ Number of units depend on the degree of heating or cooling needed for the building/zone, according to the insulation.

♠ Since every zone would have its own thermostat, the only need is to condition the place when somebody is there. This actually saves energy and money.

♠ These mini-split systems are also easier to install than any other conditioning systems.

♠ The added advantage is that most manufacturers who make such systems do provide a variety of lengths of linking passages, so that it is possible to cool rooms on the forepart of a house with the compressor in a more advantageous or inconspicuous position, i.e., outside the building.

♦ The main disadvantage of a split air conditioner is its excessive cost. It is like 30% more than the central counterpart.

♦ The appearance of the indoor part of the system is also a disadvantage. They do not have the built-in look of central systems.

♦ There also has to be a place to drain the condensate water next to the outdoor unit.

♦ It is difficult to find skilled installers and the right size, or else energy gets wasted, which in turn, leads to inefficient work. Humidity and temperature control also fail to work.

Thus, there are various disadvantages of these systems; however, given the "minimum space and maximum utility" theory, they seem to be the ideal solution for people now.