Portable A/C vs. Ductless

[hilly]

Hello,
I live in an A-frame house with the three bedrooms upstairs. One room in particular gets really hot in the summer; this of course, is the room the 3 year old is in. My wife and I are debating whether to get one portable A/C unit for the one room and leaving the other 2 rooms alone or getting a 3 head mini duct system so the entire upstairs is cool.

Obviously the cost of the portable a/c is much lower, but what about longevity? Also, any ball park figures on the cost of a ductless minisplit?
Thanks,
Stu

 

[claydogg84]

I had a portable unit years ago and absolutely hated it. You have to keep an eye on the water pan. If you waited too long it would be too full to move.

 

[begreen]

No option for putting in a $200 window unit? A 3 head mini-split system would be much more costly. Like maybe a few thousand or more.

 

[hilly]

Thanks Claydogg. It's good to hear the experience others have had.
Begreen, the window in the room is much too small unfortunately. The few thousand is what I'm bracing myself for.

 

[LowbanksArcher]

I have a portable unit and hate it. Takes up a lot of space with the big ugly hose/duct that goes out the window, and is very loud. All the sound of the unit is inside your house, compared to a regular window unit where all that sound is outside. Any way to install a window unit?

Sent from my LG-H812 using Tapatalk

 

[maple1]

You should be factoring in heating to this decision also.

 

[hilly]

Thanks for the help. A window unit just isn't feasible in that location. I think taking out and modifying the window would negate any savings by going with an in window unit. The room we are concerned about does need heat in the winter, so there would be a savings by using a heat pump vs. an electric baseboard, though I don't suspect the savings would be huge.
Thanks again for all of your thoughts.

 

[begreen]

Thanks Claydogg. It's good to hear the experience others have had.
Begreen, the window in the room is much too small unfortunately. The few thousand is what I'm bracing myself for.

Is there a larger window, say in an adjacent hallway that could accommodate a large window unit, maybe with a dedicated feed?

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Can you cut down the heat with insulated shades?

 

[BrotherBart]

Hard to imagine a window that can be opened that wouldn't accommodate one of the little 5,000 btu window units. It takes not a lot more window space than the window exhaust setup for a portable A/C unit. I have three of them.

 

[hilly]

Thanks for your persistence. Sometimes I don't give up my assumptions easily. I'll have a much closer look at the specs for the window units.

 

[xman23]

In my cabin, 1500 sq ft all open floor plan and well insulated. A 12000 btu window unit keeps the great room and loft bedroom at 70 when it's 95 outside. The back bedrooms aren't as cool but not bad. You can't beet the cost of a window unit that will do the job.

 

[iamlucky13]

One minisplit indoor unit per bedroom is probably overkill. Usually 2-4 of them heat or cool an entire house, but depend on open doors for good movement of air into rooms without their own indoor unit.

When I had my furnace replaced with a heat pump, one of the installers I got a quote from was really keen on ductless minisplits, so I told him to go ahead and quote a system and I'd consider it. It was a little over $10,000 for a 4-zone system. I think that was a lowball offer for that sized system at the time, because he was really eager for business during the recession. I've also heard single-zone systems usually cost around $5000 installed. So there's a rough ballpark, but an actual quote could obviously be more or less.

The first thing I'd do is figure out what your annual heating cost is. The easiest way to ballpark that is probably to take a full year's electricity bills, sum them up, then subtract the lowest bill multiplied by the number of bills per year...or even better, take the average of multiple years.

For ductless heat pumps versus baseboards, your annual savings should be at least 1/2, perhaps even 2/3 of that amount. If you multiply that by an expected payback period, maybe 10 or 15 years, and get a number bigger than the cost of installing the system, then it looks like you could save money making the change. If you get a number smaller than the cost of install, then you don't save money on your heating, but you can compare it to the cost of a window unit, especially if you have to modify the window, to see which is the better deal. Or if the costs are at least close enough, you might still go ductless for the benefit of whole house air conditioning.

If you don't have to modify the window, though, a small window unit is probably the way to go if all you need to do is keep one room at a more reasonable temperature.

 

[hilly]

Thanks so much for all of the feedback. It is helping a significant amount. We were getting a quote today so I'll post up here what it turns out to be.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Those mini splits really shine for low energy use and the heat factor is a lot cheaper than baseboard resistance.

 

[Ashful]

I cooled for more than 30 years with window and wall mounted portables, and it gets the job done, but they're noisy, ugly, and cost a small fortune to run. I've since installed four mini-split systems, and I love them. I have stuck solely with the Mitsubishi MSZ/MUZ systems, but I know there are now many others on the market, as well. They're silent, both inside and out, and super efficient. Installed cost is about $2500 for the outdoor unit plus $700 for each indoor unit, cooling only. If you add heat pump, a few hundred more. I'd not even consider another portable unit today.

One thing you should know, if doing cooling only, is there are many indoor unit options. Half the time, the installers don't even know about these. You can get units that sit between two joists, so it's as invisible as a central AC supply vent, ones that fit between two wall studs, under cabinet toe-kicks, etc. Definitely worth considering, if you don't want to look at a wall-mounted indoor unit.

 

[BrotherBart]

Waiting to get the heat pump recharged years ago I bought a window unit for upstairs to keep my wife cool while I was at work. The electric bill dropped like a rock and I didn't have to turn the downstairs into a meat locker just to keep the upstairs cool. Between that and the wood heat the next time the heat pump died I left it dead.

Watch Target at the end of the summer. I buy 5,000-7000 BTU window shakers for $28 to $35 apiece on clearance at season end. And just junk'em when they get tired.

Now that prices are coming down I am going to try a window unit heat pump. Too dang hard to figure out a configuration for mini-splits in a center hall colonial.

 

[hilly]

I'm still waiting on the quote, but I measured the window. Unfortunately the window (a slider) only has a 14 3/8" opening and there are no window ac units I can find that fit. Thanks again for all of your thoughts they are quite helpful.

 

[begreen]

Frigidaire makes casement AC units.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0042JXF7U/?tag=hearthamazon-20

 

[maple1]

You can get units that sit between two joists, so it's as invisible as a central AC supply vent

Those caught my eye in the Mitsu catalogue I picked up, but I think they need 24" spacing (trusses?) & not 16" spacing (joists). I think I have a spot in the ceiling of my first floor stair landing where one would work very well & send conditioned air to 4 rooms in 4 different directions, but it's 16" joists there so one wouldn't fit.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

I'm still waiting on the quote, but I measured the window. Unfortunately the window (a slider) only has a 14 3/8" opening and there are no window ac units I can find that fit. Thanks again for all of your thoughts they are quite helpful.

I can tell you from experience they just dont make a window unit that thin. THinnest i found was 15.5. They do make a special thin and tall AC window unit for a ridiculous price like $400 +

 

[begreen]

The Frigidaire casements have 14.2" listed as their width, but yes they are very pricey.

 

[iamlucky13]

Installed cost is about $2500 for the outdoor unit plus $700 for each indoor unit, cooling only.

Incredible. I thought the east coast was supposed to be more expensive than the west coast, but that's HALF what we were quoted. Yes, we were looking at heat pumps not AC, and didn't shop that hard for ductless models, but the difference is still astounding.

I think there's a lot of useful arrangements that can be made by further developing the mini-split concept, beyond just hiding them in joist bays, but I don't want to hijack the thread to throw around my semi-random ideas. The mere fact that units now exist which can be less obtrusive and hopefully quieter than the wall-mounted type is a good development.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Kits from 9000 BTUs to 18000 can be had from Home depot or lowes For around $1000 to $1500. Larger capacity models are more. Some of the 9000 Btu units run on a very low power draw as low as 3 amps for the ultra super efficient models. The markup from installers can be quite significant if your not buying the units directly. SOme DIY do a complete install and hire a HVAC tech to do the final testing and inspection ans well as sign of on the job for warranty purposes.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Im thinking about trying one of these installs myself soon. ID want the both heat and cool option because we need heat 8-9 months a year and only cooling occasionally during summer.