Ductless Air Conditioners
How Ductless Air Conditioners Work
Easy installation with no disorder or disruption to your life.
- Installing a ductless air conditioning system is easy!
- Different indoor unit style options are available to meet any need.
- The outdoor units, which have a small footprint and can be hidden by foliage, complete the system.
Typical Installation
One of the greatest features of a ductless system is its ease of installation. Typical installation is about a day. There is little to no ductwork required so you don’t have to worry about disorder in your home interrupting your life or costly remodeling expenses. The sleek, ductless indoor unit mounts discreetly within the space, and a pair of small refrigerant lines, plus power and control wiring, connect it to the outdoor unit through a small three-inch opening in the wall.
Different Styles of Indoor Units
Wall-mounted style. A wall-mounted ductless unit mounts high on a wall and is unobtrusive to the visual area within a room. The wall unit models are a neutral white in color and have features that enhance their functions within the space.
Ceiling-Recessed Cassette Style. When installed, the flush-mounted grille is all you see. With its fresh air intake capability and four-way discharge airflow, the PL series ceiling cassette gives you plenty of fresh, comfortable air.
Ducted style. When a ducted model is selected as the indoor unit that best fits your need, it can easily be installed either in the ceiling or beneath the floor in a crawl space or basement. This style accommodates the use of short duct runs and registers, to deliver and return air from the interior space back to the unit.
Outdoor units complete the ductless air conditioning and heating system. The outdoor units for each of the systems have a small physical footprint to take up as little space outside your home as possible and can be hidden by foliage.
System Operation Costs
System Operational Costs
We all know what air conditioners can cost to operate. But forget everything you know and consider a single penny — that’s right, a single penny! As few as four of them will get you one hour of comfort with a ductless split system. That means you can bask in 100 hours of comfort for as little as $4.00.
That’s just 4 cents per hour!
That means the energy required to provide the comfort you deserve is more affordable than ever.
Imagine never having to worry about high power bills again; just dial in a comfortable setting and walk away. In fact, with SEER ratings of up to 26.0, the ductless air conditioner is one the most efficient and cost-effective systems you can buy. These systems have been designed to provide peace of mind from both a comfort and energy standpoint.
Ductless cooling and heating systems are dramatically more efficient than traditional central systems. Utilizing compressors that automatically adjust to the changing environment of the space in which they are installed allows the system to use only the energy that is needed.
Operating cost estimates are based on a nationwide average of 12 cents per kW of energy usage, using a 9,000-BTU, 26-SEER model. Your actual costs may vary. Here’s how to determine the hourly energy usage cost of your selected system.
Locate your utility bill and look for the kWh (kilowatt hour) cost. This will be expressed as cents per hour of kilowatt hour consumption. Locate this cost per kWh on your bill. Use the chart below to determine your hourly cost based on the selected capacity and your local energy costs (cents per kWh).
The graph above is comparing the various hourly operating costs in cents. To the left is the BTU rating (1) with an assigned SEER rating next to it. Across the top (2) are the various local costs per hour of your electricity. The 9,000/26 model is 9,000 BTUs with a SEER rating of 26. To the right are the different hourly operating costs for that model. The cost per hour of .014 means that a 9,000-BTU 26-SEER system costs 1.4 cents per hour to operate (.04 means 4 cents per hour).
Translated to English, this means that if the hourly cost of operation of a 12,000-BTU system is .07, or 7 cents per hour, and you ran it ten hours a day for 30 days, your total utility cost for the entire month would be just $21.00. Compare that to an average 12-year-old, 8-SEER, 3-ton central system that consumes 55 cents per hour and the same ten hours a day for 30 days would cost $165.00 for the month. That’s 785% (almost 8 times) more to operate the inefficient 3-ton system. Granted, the capacity of the 3-ton system is about three times our example system but you can see where the energy savings are – in the SEER rating. Three of our 12,000-BTU systems would equal the capacity of the older 3-ton central system and would cost just $63.00 a month to operate, using 62% less energy.
