A/C spinoff - The mini split

[Kestrel]

Have you looked at a portable floor unit? Needing A/C for just a few days year, this may be a better option than a full system. We had one for ten years and it worked great for the dozen or so days a year that we needed it. (We passed it on to a family member and it's still going strong, twelve years now.) Then we put it in the utility closet until the next year. We had it in the master bedroom only, and DS would sleep in with us (special treat!) for those few days, if needed. We couldn't justify the price tag for a system when we only needed a few days a year. The floor unit we used was a Sharp, about $300 then and about $450 now. I've never had crank windows, though.. but you'll only need a exhaust out the window, so I expect you could make it work.

[chlobo]

That’s what we had in our old house. We had radiators for heat and the house had no duct work. We looked at traditional a/c and all involved ripping out gorgeous old craftsman details to install hideous ducts and that was a no. Our high velocity system was kind of loud but it worked super well.


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Was it very expensive?

[SnuggleBuggles]

Was it very expensive?

Compared to regular a/c, yes. Several thousand more but it was the best solution for our space and needs.

[trales]

The portable doesn't work with crank out windows, you have to plywood the widow after you remove the screen. It is such a bummer. I am totally researching high velocity now!

[vludmilla]

That’s what we had in our old house. We had radiators for heat and the house had no duct work. We looked at traditional a/c and all involved ripping out gorgeous old craftsman details to install hideous ducts and that was a no. Our high velocity system was kind of loud but it worked super well.


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It's funny that you mentioned that your high velocity system was noisy as I see this as a complaint online about these systems. I do not find our system particularly noisy but maybe that is because I am comparing it to old window and wall a/c's which I find much noisier. Essentially instead of listening to compressor noise, we now just have the noise of some compressed air.

[jent]

We have them in our house, installed by previous owners (Daiken brand). Reading the above posts about cleaning issues has made me realized that we need to check on whether we're keeping up appropriately. So far they work fine for us. They are in each bedroom and there is one downstairs in our family room that is open to the kitchen. If we were in a hotter climate I could see how that might not be enough, but here in New England it's fine for our needs.

We also run them as heat units in the winter to supplement the baseboard heat- since we have solar panels DH thinks it is saving energy. I'm not sure. If we were relying on them for heat alone it wouldn't be great- since the units are up high and hot air rises, you don't get as much benefit.

They are ugly but usually I don't notice them. But they get in the way- the unit in our room is on the window wall, and is in the way of doing curtains (previous owners had blinds and I'm going to replace with Roman shades). The downstairs unit is where I might have put built ins or a fireplace on our family room wall (can't believe our NE house has no fireplace).