Mini split AC and heat ???

Seeing more and more of these- how do the work out say in a 1200 sq. ft home ? They just kinda like an window ac unit but with heat ?

Brother has one in a workshop space, was not happy as to the outside unit mounting and appearance as has a Geo Heat Pump for his main house with nothing visible and no holes for lines. I had a larger Heat Pump style PTAC installed in my workshop when we built it. Was fine initially now regret that machine as inadequate in winter, runs incessantly when operate it. Awkward as always buried alive by something and may end up installing a basic HVAC system to replace it now that is going on 14 years old. Looked and discounted mini split units as no better.

In the fall of 2022, we needed a new heating system. One of my sons-in-law, who is a contractor, recommended a heat pump (mini-split) system. A contractor friend of his (they work on many projects together) came and looked our house over for a system. 

About 10 years ago (maybe more) I had a Geothermal system installed when the oil furnace (hot water baseboard) needed major repairs. I had only been using the oil furnace during the transitional periods and w whole house pellet stove when it got below freezing continuously. I'm very happy with the Geothermal system and would do it again for anything.  I'd still been using the pellet stove during really cold spells and that let me keep the door from the basement into the garage open to heat the garage, however with the price jump on wood pellets last fall, I refused to pay those prices. I was suprised to see the electric bill was actually less with the geothermal alone, not using the pellet stove at all. Best of all with the geothermal, when you put your hand near the vents, it feels warm, unlike any heat pumps I've experienced. With a heat pump the thermometer may show 70 degrees, but it still fells cold. Last winter I just used a small propane heater in the garage on days I had something to do and that is what I believe I'll continue with.  I'll save the pellets and stove for if the geothermal ever has a problem when heat is needed.  As for summer cooling it only used about half the electric of the central AC it replaced.  

Edited by PaulB - 30 May 2024 at 2:10pm

A friend had a mini split installed to heat & cool the well insulated loft area ( 6'6" can stand in center but not along the sides) he uses as his man cave above the 3 car garage at home they purchased a few years ago. He's not said anything about their electric bill but it does  heat & cool the area well. Is not geothermal, just a unit that mounts to outside wall.

Edited by KJCHRIS - 30 May 2024 at 11:51am

A mini split is similar to a standard ari conditioner... The compressor sets outside on a pad or hangs on the outer wall.. The "coil and fan" that you would normally see above your Furnace, is the "inside unit"... you can hand it on a wall in the room or area you want to heat and cool.. The copper tubes run thru the wall to the Outside unit... It differs from a standard air conditioner that you dont need "duct work" thru the house, so it is an advantage for an older house or something that had electric heat base boards and never had duct work... The "outside unit" can be sized to run 1-2-3-4 "inside units" so you can put one in each room if the rooms are sectioned off or far apart..

Edited by steve(ill) - 30 May 2024 at 4:16pm

I can't say much about the home use only, or cheap import stuff built to a price point but I have designed many of these things into structures. I favor Bard overall, but Tempstar, and Rheem have also served very well. We've had problems with Carrier branded equipment more than the others, but that is controls, (electronics) issues, not much in mechanics of the sets. 

BuckSkin wrote: DougG wrote: Seeing more and more of these- how do the work out say in a 1200 sq. ft home ? They just kinda like an window ac unit but with heat ? Don't waste your money. The local electric co-op came out with a deal where we qualified for three 18,000-btu units that they would re-imburse us our total investment plus some providing what we got met with their requirements. We had to put up the money initially and then the co-op reimbursed us. I actually made a bit of money off the deal as I did the entire installations myself and our reimbursement was about $300 per unit more than our outlay. HOWEVER....., everybody in the country around here jumped in on that deal and they have acquired a nickname = GoodYear Heaters = good for about a year. Of the three we got, two of them were dead in the water in less than a year. One is still sort of hanging in there but it is nothing to brag about. There is no such thing as one of these making what I would call heat; anything below 40° and they will freeze over and quit, giving a constant DF code. There are a bejillion companies selling them and they are all made in the same place by the same company; there is no such thing as getting a good one. After we started having problems with ours, I did a bit of research and found out that they use recycled Aluminum/potmetal to make all the tubing in the evaporators and condensers; and, with the constant expansion and contraction, the recycled material has no structural integrity and will fatigue and start acquiring hair-line cracks by the millions and leaking refrigerant from a million tiny fractures = no such thing as repairing a leak as there will be millions of them. What they also don't tell you is they come pre-charged with a refrigerant that has been outlawed; and, once they leak down, you can't get the stuff to re-charge them. Even though I made a few bucks and ended up with the mini-split units for free, I wish I had never seen the things and did not have the holes in my wall and the eyesore units hanging both inside and outside. We have two that are completely useless and they are just hanging there, inside and out, not doing anyone any good --- just eyesores. Even at their best, they were never anything spectacular. We mounted the outside units on brackets screwed to the walls; and, when they are running, they reverberate and sound like a bull-dozer running outside somewhere; they are definitely not quite. The idea and concept is good but the currently available product is short-lived junk.  I am glad I kept my two big GE window units; those babies will refrigerate this place on the hottest/humidest days even though they dim every light in the neighborhood when they kick on --- you can't get anything out of something that you don't put anything in.

Best thing I did on new house was Geologic Ground Source on build. We had to go on backup electric heat twice in twelve years, one condenser failed the other being a wiring fault.
On HP house bill around $200/mo, and on backup resistance heat close to $700. Been considering a wood burner backup and supplemental, wife does not want the mess, I like wood heat and have plenty resource on farm.

Can see power outages coming, not stupid as well know the system demand here with available gennys’ soon as coal retirements cascade black and brown outs will be on us.