Air conditioning is a lifesaver on a hot California day. Since you use your AC so much, it’s important that you invest in a system that will work well for your home. In recent years, ductless AC has grown in popularity, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that a ductless cooling system is better than traditional AC.
So, how do you decide if you should go ductless or not? Well, at Star Mechanical, we’re here to share the pros and cons of both traditional and ductless AC systems so that you can decide which system is best for you.
What Are Ductless Mini-Splits?
If you’re interested in ductless AC, you’ll need to know what mini-splits are. Mini-splits are individual units that cool or heat each room or space of your home to the desired temperature. These units are connected to a larger outdoor unit through small cables in the walls.
Mini-Split Pros And Cons
Ductless AC has many benefits, especially for homes that don’t have existing ductwork. However, as with most things in life, there are some downsides to ductless cooling as well. Taking these factors into consideration, you can determine if ductless or traditional AC is best for you.
Mini-Split Pros
If you’re building a new house or adding an addition to your home, ductless AC is a great choice that will provide custom cooling and heating without making large holes in the wall. Ductless AC allows you to place a unit in each room or zone in your home.
You can determine how many units to install based on your budget and the size of each room. To save money, you may want to section off a cluster of rooms in your home as a zone, and place one unit in that zone to cool it down.
You don’t have to set all the mini-split units to the same temperature. If there are certain rooms that you don’t use very often, you can turn off the mini-split unit to save energy instead of cooling a room that isn’t in use.
Mini-splits can also be very efficient. It’s easy for ductwork inside the walls of a home to have leaks and holes, which means that some of the cool or hot air is lost. However, mini-splits don’t rely on ducts to transfer air, which means that the cool air is traveling directly from the outdoor unit to the room.
Mini-Split Cons
For some homeowners, mini-split units appear bulky since they are often mounted on the walls of your home. Each unit is usually three to four feet in length and around one foot in height. If you are particular about your decorating styles or you don’t have a lot of wall space, ductless AC might not be the right choice for you.
Ductless cooling can also be more expensive to purchase and install compared to a traditional AC unit. If your home has existing ductwork, it’s probably better to install a new traditional unit unless the ductwork is in really bad shape.
What About Traditional AC?
The most common alternative to ductless AC is traditional air conditioning. Traditional AC relies on ducts that connect through a network in the walls of your home. These ducts carry cooled or heated air from the source to the vent in the walls of each room. Traditional AC units cools the air in your home to the temperature that is set on the thermostat.
Many homes already have existing ductwork installed, which makes replacing a traditional AC less expensive than installing ductless AC. However, if you’re building a new home, adding an addition, or you want to renovate your home to be more efficient, ductless AC is a great option. The zoning options that ductless AC offers aren’t obtainable through traditional AC, and the initial investment in the mini-split units could pay off in the long haul due to the system’s efficiency.
Schedule Your Manteca Ductless AC Installation With Star Mechanical!
If you’re interested in scheduling ductless or traditional AC installation, or you still have questions, please reach out to Star Mechanical. Our team would love to help you figure out which system is best for your needs. Call us today to schedule an appointment!
