On Friday, August 23, 2013 1:36:04 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Fri, 23 Aug 2013 12:52:36 -0400, John Albert

wrote:



Hello all -



I may be buying a house before too long, and a few questions

about installing air conditioning into a home that lacks it.

House will be ranch-style, 1600-1900 sq. ft. I have no house

in particular picked out yet, but some I'm interested would

be fine -- EXCEPT for the fact that they were not built with

air conditioning.



I'm wondering about the pros/cons of installing a "mini

split" system (with multiple "room units" or perhaps more

than one mini split unit), vis-a-vis going for central air...?



Just from casual browsing, it looks like mini split would be

considerably cheaper and easier to install than a full

central air system with ducting, etc. (the latter probably

involving a LOT of wall/floor work as well).



Is central air worth paying the extra $$$ and installation work?

Or can mini split do as good a job, have equal reliability,

etc.?



I'm also wondering if pre-existing ducting in some homes

that have either oil or gas hot air, could also be used with

a central air system?



Actually, if I found the right place with pre-existing

ducting, I might even consider going to a full geothermal

system. But that's a different topic.



Thanks,

- John



I have been researching the same thing myself. If you already have

forced air you might be able to use the existing duct work by adding

A/C registers in the ceiling but it all depends on how the ducts are

run. In a retro fit, if you need extensive duct work a minisplit ends

up being competitive or even cheaper. Then the question becomes, how

many condenser do you want. There are multi head systems but they end

up being almost as expensive as using a one to one setup with multiple

condensers and heads.



The first thing you have to do is create a scope of work on the

particular house to see what is necessary to do the install.



Equipment alone



2400 BTU 3 head Fujitsu Mini Split $3400

3600 BTU 3 head Fujitsu Mini Split $4550

3600 BTU Trane 16 seer central (air handler and condenser) $3980 with

a $585 rebate from FPL.



That does not include duct work, copper or labor.

Agree with your overall points. But that cost for the 36K BTU central
eqpt is way high. It might be Tranes price, but you can get good
eqpt from a company like Rheem for more like $2500. I
bought a Rheem 5 ton/60K btu a couple years ago for about that price.
It was 14.5 Seer though. Don't know what the price curves look
like today, but 2 years ago, it didn't make sense to shell out the
extra money for higher seer, the payback was just too long. That
was for me here in NJ. If you're in AZ or FL, it could be different.