A home cooling system can do wonders for keeping your home and family comfortable throughout the scorching hot summer months. You have a couple of options if you’re currently in the market for a new home cooling system. Deciding between a central air conditioning system and a ductless cooling system all starts with understanding how each operates.
Central Air Conditioning
Central air conditioning involves the use of an indoor air handler unit and an outdoor condenser unit. This type of system uses ductwork to circulate cold air throughout the various rooms of your home. Typically, a traditional centralized air conditioning system will run off one centralized thermostat. This type of home cooling system can provide many great advantages for your family.
Easy Integration With Existing Heating System
If you already have a forced-air heating system in your home, such as a furnace or boiler, then it’s super easy to add on a centralized air conditioning system. It will simply use the ducting that is already run throughout your home, so there’s no need to do any extensive installation. Furthermore, your new cooling system can be controlled with your existing thermostat when new wires are run.
Effective Filtering Options
One great advantage of a centralized air conditioning system is that it can use a variety of filters to match your family’s unique filtering needs. For family members who struggle with summertime allergies or respiratory conditions, you’ll want to install an air filter with a high MERV rating. If you’re just looking to filter out larger airborne particles, you can opt for a more standard MERV filter rating of eight or nine. The versatility that a centralized AC system offers isn’t comparable to other cooling systems on the market today.
Ductless Mini-Split Cooling
A cooling system option that has gained a lot of popularity in the recent decade is the ductless mini-split system. This system is comprised of an outdoor condenser unit and one or more indoor mini-split units. Instead of using ducting to circulate cooled air throughout your home, this system uses mini-split units. Each unit will pull in air, cool and filter it, then disperse it back into the room. There’s no need for any bulky ductwork.
Zone Controls
One of the most desirable benefits of the ductless mini-split system is that it allows for individual temperature settings on each unit. This means that you can turn on the unit in your living room and turn off the one in your bedroom. Or, you can set your living room unit to 68 degrees and your den unit to 72 degrees. There’s a ton of versatility regarding the zone controls on ductless mini-split systems.
Less Invasive Install
Ductless mini-split systems are the go-to cooling system option for homes that don’t have existing ductwork and for home additions. Because this particular cooling system doesn’t require any ducting, there’s no need to rip out drywall or flooring to install ducting. Rather, all that’s required is a small three-inch hole in the exterior wall to run the conduit for your ductless mini-split unit out to its main condenser unit.
High Energy-Efficiency
One great benefit of ductless mini-split systems that simply can’t be overlooked is their energy efficiency. Due to their lack of ducting, they’re much higher than you’ll get with a traditional centralized air conditioning system. With centralized AC, cooled air can escape through gaps that develop in your ducting. The Department of Energy has estimated that up to 30 percent of the air cooled by your AC system gets lost in air gaps in your ducting. With a ductless system, there’s no loss of cooled air, as it’s all forced right back into the room that your mini-split unit is in.
Which AC System Should You Choose?
While there are many factors that you’ll want to take into consideration when deciding whether to go with centralized air conditioning or a ductless mini-split system, there’s one very prominent factor you can’t ignore. This is ducting. If you already have ducts installed in your home, it will be much cheaper to simply add a centralized air conditioning system to it. If your home doesn’t have any ducting, then the ductless mini-split units are going to be the most cost-effective to install.
Excellent AC Service
JW Mitchell Heating & Air Conditioning offers excellent air conditioning services to the entire Costa Mesa, CA region. Our highly knowledgeable HVAC technicians can assist you with all of your home heating, ductless mini-split, and indoor air quality needs. Give our super-friendly staff a call today to schedule your next service appointment.
