About Ductless Split Air Conditioners

Function

• Ductless split AC systems have an interior part called the evaporator, which features a fan and cooling coil, as well as an outside unit called the condenser. A refrigerant passes between the inside and outside units and their accompanying blowers through a tube. Electric wires also link these two units together through a hole in your home's wall, but the hole typically has a diameter of no more than 3 inches. You can cool many rooms simultaneously with the ductless split AC system because you can hook up more than one inside evaporator to just one outdoor condenser.

Benefits

• A huge benefit of a ductless split AC system is that you can use it to cool off your home's ductless rooms, especially if you have a new home addition, without having to tear down walls to install new ducts. This system also eliminates the need to have multiple window AC units for cooling several rooms. Another benefit of the ductless split AC system is that even if you are cooling more than one room using this system, you still can make the target temperature of each room different.

Other Advantages

• Even though you have to attach the indoor units of a ductless split AC system high on an interior wall, you can use a remote control to direct its function conveniently. Ductless split AC systems also are not as noisy as window AC devices, and they are less expensive to install than central AC units. These systems additionally have a seasonal energy efficiency ratio of more than 13, which means they can save you on your energy bill.

Cost

• Ductless split AC systems usually cost about $1,000 to $1,200 apiece. The high cost can be a deterrent if you consider that window AC units typically are much cheaper, costing about $100 to $400. In addition, maintaining a ductless split AC system can be costly, because instead of having one big device to maintain as you do in a central AC system, you have multiple units to care for and repair in a ductless split AC system.