Here in the Greater Boston area, ductless heating and cooling in a single zone configuration, fully installed and ready to turn on starts at $4,500 and the price goes up from there depending on a number of factors.
Buyer Beware
You may have found websites that claim it costs $1867 to purchase a new ductless mini split, and $159 to have it professionally installed. As you can imagine, that price is not only the cheapest, least efficient unit on the market, but I don’t know a contractor worth allowing into your home who would charge that little for labor. Proceed with caution.
READ: 7 Reasons to Choose Professional Installation for Your Heating and Cooling System
Ductless Mini-Splits are Whisper-Quiet
By now you may already know that ductless is a quiet, efficient heating and air conditioning solution for your home that will reduce your energy costs and in some cases, pay for itself in energy savings.
But, what can a homeowner expect to pay for this modern, convenient heating and air conditioning solution in the greater Boston area?
Ductless mini-split technology has been around for more than 50 years, but has only been available to New England homeowners for about thirty years.
In Japan, ductless accounts for 90% of all HVAC systems sold, and more than 80% in Europe.
Unfamiliarity with ductless technology and spotty access to educational information has slowed the growth of ductless acceptance in the United States, but the efficiency of ductless has caused major utility companies, government agencies and homeowners to take notice.
The financial incentives associated with ductless technology have made it one of the fastest growing home comfort solutions for residential heat pump and residential air conditioning replacements.
So, how much can you expect to pay to have a Mitsubishi ductless system installed in your home? Of course I’m going to tell you, it depends.
The price of a ductless system is determined by four primary factors:
- The size of the unit
- The type of unit
- The number of areas (or zones) being conditioned
- The degree of difficulty of the installation (How far the indoor and outdoor units are from each other, the construction of the outer wall to be drilled to carry the line sets, etc.)
Due to the flexibility of these systems (whole house, partial house, one room, etc.) there are multiple design possibilities that can slide your job from the lower end of the cost range to the highest. A ductless system, on its most basic level, consists of:
LG DUCTLESS INDOOR
LG DUCTLESS OUTDOOR
AND, LINE SETS TO CONNECT EVERYTHING
Single Zone Mitsubishi Ductless Installation
Professional installation of the most basic, or single zone, configuration (consisting of one wall unit and condenser) will cost between $3,500 up to $4,500. This layout is ideal for many kinds of applications like conditioning the air in a sunroom, garage, attic, and some smaller homes.
Multi-Zone Mitsubishi Ductless Installation
Some New England homeowners need only one ductless unit, while other applications are better served by 3, 4 or 5 units. It all depends on the layout of the home and what works best for you.
A multi-zone system consisting of two indoor evaporator units typically run between $8500 and $10,000.
We can run as many as five indoor units with a single outdoor condenser, and we can come back to add indoor units at a later date if you want to have your system designed for future expansion as budgets allow.
A 5-zone system could cost $20,000 to $28,000.
Is ductless a good value for my money?
At first glance, the cost of ductless heating and air conditioning can seem steep, however, the benefits in energy efficiency will save you a lot in the long run.
Since there are no ducts, you don’t waste energy through leaky ductwork.
Typical forced air systems experience duct losses equivalent to about 20% of the system’s energy consumption. Often it’s over 30%.
Ductless systems are also less expensive to maintain than traditional systems.
When you add in attractive rebate programs and 0% payment plans, ductless solutions wind up shaking out as a net cost savings to most homeowners.
A multi-zone configuration comes with an additional energy saving benefit. You can control the temperature independently in every room where an air handler is installed.
So, if you’re not using a room, you won’t have to keep it heated and cooled the same as the rest of the house.
Finally, you’ll need a qualified installer, like NETR, Inc., and, as I mentioned earlier, there are some good reasons for that (beyond the fact that it’s us. :-))
If you’re interested in ductless for you home, give NETR, Inc. a call at 781-933-6387, or click the button below to learn more and schedule an appointment.
