Beautiful colonial homes like this one in Belmont, MA are a joy to live in, except in the summer. Many of these homes were built long before air conditioning was even invented, so keeping them cool in our increasingly hot summers is becoming a real challenge. Many folks rely on window air conditioners, but these have a lot of drawbacks. They are a pain to install each year, and they tie up your windows for half the year! They are notoriously inefficient, while costing an arm and a leg in energy costs. On top of it, they’re noisy, which is becoming more and more of a problem when people spend time working in home offices, like our homeowners here in Belmont. Our homeowners were looking for a better solution to cool their kitchen, office, living room, and two bedrooms, wanting something quiet, energy efficient and cost effective. When they called us here at N.E.T.R., Inc., we knew we could install the perfect ductless mini split system to meet their needs.
Like many homes in our area, this family wasn’t getting enough comfort with window air conditioners.
The window units don’t circulate air well in a room, they’re noisy, and they’re expensive to run. Plus, it usually takes the better part of a weekend day to install several units throughout a house like this one, and there never seems to be that “right” weekend. You either choose one too early, and then there’s a cold snap, or you wait one to many, and spend a week sweaty and sticky. There is a better way!
N.E.T.R., Inc. suggested the family install a Mitsubishi Electric Hyper Heat system. Ductless air conditioners like these rely on one outdoor unit, but you can add several indoor wall mounted units that provide whisper-quiet comfort throughout a room. The units distribute the air throughout a space and monitor its humidity as well to help maintain perfect comfort throughout. For this home, we suggested installing four wall mounted units, one for the kitchen, one that would cool the living room and office, and one each for the upstairs bedrooms. Each of these ductless HVAC units can operate independently, creating separate zones of comfort, and allowing you additional savings by only using the zones you need, when you need them.
These ductless cooling units provide great air conditioning in the summer but can also be used to supplement the existing heating system in the house in Winter. This means whenever it seems a little chilly, all the homeowners will have to do is use the remote control and nudge the temperature up to make the room perfectly comfortable. The units can provide great heat, even when it’s -13F outside, which means perfect comfort no matter what nature dishes out, Summer or Winter!
By cooling and heating areas without ductwork, there’s minimum disruption to the home, and by getting rid of the window units, the family will actually be able to enjoy their windows and the great light they provide in the home, all year long!
Saving Money — Rebates Are Available
Because ductless split systems are so energy efficient, many homeowners can qualify for rebates because these systems do so much to use less energy and help out the environment. This can make switching to a more permanent cooling solution like ductless more affordable, along with the savings you’ll see from lower energy bills every month. There are still rebates available, so if you are interested in this type of energy efficient equipment as well, be sure to ask your comfort specialist about what sort of rebates would apply.
So just to recap the key points of this particular home:
- The home owners now have a comfortable, quiet solution that works both as heating and cooling for four different areas of their home.
- No removal of any existing HVAC equipment was necessary, but they’ll never need those window air conditioners again!
- The family will be able to work from home in the home office with no discernable background noise, while making working from home more comfortable than ever.
- The family will also be able to use these HVAC units to supplement heat on cold winter days, assuring 24 x 7 x 365 of cost-effective, energy efficient comfort!
A Great Investment
This kind of ductless HVAC installation is going to help our homeowners with a few things. They are still using their current system to heat, so this ductless install will only supplement their current system to make the house completely comfortable. No removal of an old system was necessary. The units were installed mainly to provide cooling in the hot weather, and they can do so on demand, even on the occasional warm spring day.
This ductless technology will also help save money on energy bills, being that it is an energy efficient solution. That’s music to the ears of any homeowner who has seen their fair share of high electric bills in summer.
The warranty on all qualifying systems installed after April 1, 2015 has recently been extended to 12 years! Click here to see the details.
Check out this quick video about multi-zone ductless heating and cooling from Mitsubishi Electric. Not the same layout, but you’ll get the idea. Please give us a call if you have any questions about your home.
