Is Ductless Heating The Right Choice For You?
Ductless heating isn’t for everyone. If your home has existing ductwork for your furnace, then there is a good chance that ductless heating isn’t for you. While ductless heating installation costs more than a typical furnace replacement for an entire house, it does not cost less than building new ductwork in an existing building. There are numerous opportunities where ductless heating installation would be the preferred choice.
What is Ductless Heating and Cooling?
A typical forced air heating and cooling system uses a single furnace and ductwork throughout the home to heat the entire area. A ductless system is a single unit that is installed in a specific room or area and connected to an outside compressor. It’s not intended to heat or cool and entire home, but a specific area. The biggest benefit of this is that is more efficient than ductwork heating in that 25 percent of energy can be lost due to ductwork. Since it’s a self-contained heating and cooling unit, no ductwork is needed. The heated or cooled air comes directly from the unit into the room.
Perfect For Additions, Etc.
Ductless heating and cooling system are perfect for rooms that don’t already have ductwork such as room additions, garages, outbuildings, etc. Adding ductwork for additions to an existing home is expensive and may put too much of a burden on the existing furnace.
There is a lot of energy used when a traditional HVAC compressor starts up. That adds up as the unit kicks on and off throughout the day. A ductless compressor doesn’t turn off and on, but instead lowers and increases power based on the need of the room.
Areas Where Ductwork Exists
Houses aren’t perfect. There are areas that are too large or too small and heat up or cool down differently than the rest of the house. Do you have a small kitchen with an oven that turns it into a hotbox in the summer? Do you have a large home where the upstairs just doesn’t warm up like the rest of the house?
These are areas where having a ductless unit may help regulate heating. If you only use a few rooms of the house regularly, then you can turn the heat town and focus on ductless heating for those specific rooms.