As Texas residents, we are not strangers to extreme weather. It is not uncommon to wake up with freezing temperatures only to be sweating by the afternoon. And these fluctuating temperatures followed by months of extreme heat aren’t kind to the HVAC system in our home. Your HVAC system works hard to keep your home and office cool and comfortable, but sometimes it can struggle to keep all the rooms cooled evenly. We all have a room in our house that doesn’t seem to keep cool in the summer, or that one room that is always chilly during the winter. This common issue can easily be solved by installing a mini split system.
In the simplest of terms, a mini split system is a ductless, compact air conditioner and heater that has the ability to cool or heat an individual room or rooms. The important thing to remember is that they do not create heat like a furnace, they transport heat between two spaces. They do this by pumping heat from indoors to outdoors (cooling) and from outdoors to indoors (heating).
A mini split system has three main components:
- Outdoor unit: The outdoor unit is where the compressor is, and is responsible for compressing the refrigerant (cooling) and expanding the refrigerant (heating).
- Indoor unit: The indoor unit is small, and mounted on the wall of each room you are heating or cooling.
- Refrigeration lines: Refrigerators connect the indoor units to the outdoor unit
In a regular HVAC system, the large unit is located outside the home. Ducts carry your home’s air to a central location, where it is cooled and then returned to your home via air ducts. But in a mini-split system, the indoor unit is located inside the room or zone that it is cooling. This indoor unit is very small and installed on the ceiling or side wall of the area it is assigned to cool or heat.
The indoor mini-split system has cold evaporator coils inside. The unit takes the warm air that is inside your home or office and runs it over the cold evaporator coils that absorb the heat. It brings the heat to the small, outside unit where refrigerant dumps all the heat it pulled from the inside air. It basically pulls the warm air from inside the home and blows cool air back inside.
Now that you know how they work, we will get into the other benefits of having a mini split system in your home:
- They are a lot smaller than the typical HVAC system
- Unlike central heating and cooling systems, mini splits do not require ductwork
- Mini splits provide both heating and cooling by using a pump, which is more energy efficient
- They are rated very high in energy efficiency. In fact, they have a 20+ SEER rating (cooling efficiency) and a 10+ HSPF rating (heating efficiency)
- Mini splits are a more affordable option if adding on to a room. Instead of having to add ductwork and expand your current HVAC system, you can install a mini split system and save time and money.
- You do not have to waste money cooling or heating rooms that you are not using
If you are interested in learning more about mini splits or are ready to have one installed in your home or office, give the experts at JW East Mechanical a call!