How Do Ductless Mini Splits Work?

If you’re anything like us, ductless mini split air conditioning and heating seemed like a magic trick the first time you saw it. It’s relatively small. It’s quiet. It’s not stuffed in an unsecured open window. It doesn’t take miles of ductwork to get to the spaces you need it in most.

A mystery is fun when you’re at a friend’s house, but if you’re thinking about installing a ductless mini split cooling and heating system in your own house, you want answers. You wanna know exactly what the deal with that thing is before you start changing your whole home.

We’ve got you! Let’s talk about mini splits!

What Are Ductless Mini Splits?

This one’s simple. Instead of one big condenser/cooling unit, a mini split is “split” in two: the indoor cooling unit that you see on the wall and the outdoor condenser that does the heavy lifting. These two pieces are connected through small tubing run through your wall directly from one the condenser to one or more interior cooling units.

That’s the basics, but let’s say you wanna learn a little more about the pieces and how they work. Well, we got you. Let’s talk about tech.

What’s This Part Of The Mini Split Mounted On My Wall?

The part of the mini split setup that you’ll be dealing with the most is the heating and cooling unit. It’s usually mounted on a wall inside your house, most often on one of the exterior walls for ease of installation. Most units are approximately 3 feet long, 10 inches tall and 10 inches deep.

Inside that box are: a blower motor, a fan, and an evaporator coil. The blower motor powers the fan, which blows air over the evaporator coil. The evaporator coil pulls heat and moisture out of the air, returning out to the outdoor unit.

Depending on what you need, most systems allow for 4 indoor units connected to 1 outdoor unit. This means you can have four units in four different rooms and only heat or cool each area (we often call them zones) as much as they need. So if you like your bedroom warm and cozy, but your living room cool and inviting, we’ve got you covered.

What About That Outdoor Part Of The Mini Split?

The outdoor unit, which we call a “condenser” or “condensing unit” is probably going to look very familiar if you’ve lived or worked in buildings with central air. This unit’s going to vary in size based on your needs, but is typically not any bigger than 45 inches tall and 36 inches wide. Essentially, this has all the pieces of a window unit that are loud, heavy, and drip.

Inside the condensing unit are three important pieces: a compressor, a fan and a condenser coil. Compressors compress refrigerants to change the temperature. It’s the same piece that’s in a window unit air conditioner or a heat pump. The condenser coil releases the heat and moisture outside that the evaporator coil had picked up from indoors, so the system can keep working without overheating. And the fan…well, I think you probably know what those do.

How Many Square Feet Can a Ductless Mini Split Cool?

Naturally, one of your first questions is going to be how much space your ductless mini split can cover. The answer is: anywhere between 150 to 2,000 square feet.

There are a number of different sizes, models, and brands of mini splits available for installation. There are also a lot of factors that determine what the best size mini split is to fit your home. For more on determining the right mini split for you, check out our article “What Size Mini Split Do I Need.”

10 Reasons Why You Should Get a Mini Split?

We get it, there are lots of options when it comes to cooling and heating your home: window units, central air, box fans, setting up a lawn chair in front of the open freezer. So, you may be asking yourself “are ductless mini splits worth it?” Do you need a compelling reason to move forward with buying and installing a mini split? Great, how about ten?

1) Thermal Control for Every Room

Other heating and cooling systems try to get your whole house to the same temperature. A split system has more control – giving you the power to lower the temperature in the kitchen without changing the temperature in other rooms. That way you’re not sweating in the kitchen while your family shivers in the living room.

2) No Duct Work

If your house wasn’t built with ductwork already installed, especially if it’s stucco, trying to install ducts through your whole house for central air conditioning can be a headache – sometimes literally, if you’re tall! If there’s nowhere in the current build to stick ducts (which there likely isn’t) it will either mean putting exposed ducts on your ceiling or a drop ceiling, making your whole house smaller and darker. Those are two words that rarely pop up in enticing real estate listings.

Ductless mini split installation is simple and easy and won’t require finding space to stash a lot of ductwork.

3) Energy efficient cooling

The best part of a ductless mini split air conditioner and heater is the energy efficiency. With multiple units in multiple zones, you’re not paying to heat areas you’re not using. Each indoor unit comes with an individual digital thermostat and is capable of operating independently from the other units. Who needs an ice cold bedroom in the middle of the day or a warm cozy kitchen at midnight? It’s the kind of control over your energy bill that angry sitcom dads could only dream about.

4) No Loss of Cool Air

When the air doesn’t have to travel through yards and yards of ductwork, there are less energy losses. That means less waiting for the cool air to get to you and less time running the motor just to lose that heat in the walls. That can add up on your electric bill, but it can also add more comfort to your day.

5) Quiet Operation

You probably already do more yelling in your day to day life than you want to. Nobody wants to get back home at the end of a long day, just to have to shout over the compressor on your window unit. With mini splits. compressors and condensers are located in the outside unit, making indoor air conditioning extremely quiet and peaceful. The rest of the noise in your house is out of our control.

6) Year Round Relief

No more switch-overs! No more furnaces and pilot lights! When the weather starts getting warm again, just turn down the thermostat and the air conditioning will start.

7) Sleek Design

Say goodbye to the hassle of window units and hello to seeing out your window again! The sleek design of ductless heating and cooling can be suspended from the ceiling, the top of walls, or almost anywhere it will fit.

8) Upgrade One Zone at a Time

You don’t have to jump in the deep end. Regardless of all the positives we can list for you, you might want to see it in action before you start setting up your whole house. With a mini split, you can do that. Start with one or two units for one or two zones. Once you know you’re satisfied, you might want to add more and you can do that! We’ll make sure you break the heat without breaking the bank!

9) Safer Than Window Units

There is a laundry list of potential issues when it comes to using window units, but one of the biggest is security. A window unit means you’re leaving a window unsecured. If there’s no one home, that can mean an easy way into your home. With a mini split, any hole to the outside is only as thick as the pipe going through it. You can go on vacation without having to wonder who’s sneaking in through your window.

10) Rebates May Be Available

Depending on where the ductless system is installed (school, commercial building, residential home), government rebates and tax credits may be available.

To learn more about ductless heating and air conditioning systems, contact TLC Plumbing! We would be happy to get a free, in-home estimate started for your ductless mini split repair or installation.

Everything You Need To Know About Ductless Mini Splits and Were Afraid To Ask