Check out this podcast to hear about their advantages over other cooling options.

Ductless Air Conditioning (Podcast)

In this podcast, John Maher talks with Tim Schofield and Matt Torre of Jones Service. They talk about the advantages of ductless AC compared to window AC and central AC. Then, they explain why you should opt for a ductless heating and cooling method, rather than a system that only does AC.

John Maher: Hi, I’m John Maher. I’m here today with Tim Schofield and Matt Torre of Jones Services, a service company in Goshen, New York, with a focus on Mitsubishi heating and cooling systems. Today, we’re talking about ductless air conditioning. Tim and Matt, welcome.

Tim Schofield: Hey John.

Matt Torre: Hey John, pleasure as always.

Can a Ductless AC Effectively Cool a Home?

John: Thanks. So guys, is a ductless air conditioner a good way to cool a room in a home?

Tim: Yeah, John, the ductless air conditioner heat pumps are one of the best technologies in the heating and cooling industry. So whether you want to do just one room, or you want to do an entire house, it’s one of the most comfortable, quietest, technologically advanced systems you can have.

Ductless Heat Pump AC Versus Window AC

John: How does it compare to a window air conditioner, if that’s the typical way that I might cool off a room in my home?

Tim: I get this question a lot. And my answer is, your window unit is like the golf cart of the electric car industry. We’re putting in a Tesla. The way it’s going to run is going to be so much more efficient, so much quieter, and really do a much better job than a window unit that’s made to just fit in a hole and be cheap.

John: Talk a little bit more about the efficiency, how is it that a ductless air conditioner is more efficient than a window air conditioner?

Tim: The window units, they really just run on and off. And when you hear that window unit turn on, you could almost hear the electric meter spinning outside, it’s drawing so much power. Now when a Mitsubishi system turns on, it may only have to run at a low speed just to almost polish the air, rather than that window unit that’s running full throttle or no throttle.

So once you take the heat and humidity out of a space with a Mitsubishi ductless system, that system can hum on a very low speed to do what I like to call, just polishing the air, which is a very low electric draw, a very low noise level, and it makes it a very comfortable space.

Using Ductless AC for Whole-Home Cooling

John: Okay. You mentioned that you can use the ductless air conditioner to air condition a whole home. Tell me a little bit more about using a ductless system as a whole home cooling solution.

Tim: Mitsubishi in particular, they make anything from a one room solution, to a whole house solution, and having a good professional design it for you is important. There’s six different styles of indoor units you can have to do your entire house. Whether you want to have the traditional wall units everywhere, or you want a ducted system that may connect to your existing ductwork, or maybe you need new ductwork… They have a system that’ll fit just about anybody’s needs, if it’s designed properly. Mitsubishi even has a floor unit, which is more comparable to a radiator in a house. They have units that go up into the ceiling, and being able to mix and match those different indoor units to your outside heat pumps, it’s a very powerful tool, and you can come up with some pretty sleek designs.

Ductless AC Versus Central Air Conditioning

John: Matt, can you tell me a little bit more about the advantages of a ductless air conditioning system as opposed to a central air system?

Matt: Yeah, sure. John. I think really what stands out first is overall efficiency. A ductless system is going to be able to cool your home using much less electricity than a lot of your standard central air conditioning systems. Beyond that, it’s going to give you the flexibility of room by room temperature control in most cases. As opposed to a central air system, which is typically one zone, maybe two, if you spent the extra to have it zoned out when it was originally installed.

Ductless systems are able to go room by room. Every bedroom, every living space can really be tailored to the temperature that you want. Now that really is a benefit on two levels. First off, not using air conditioning in rooms that you’re not using is going to reduce the overall cost. But also being able to have that control from a comfort level is another advantage.

The other major benefit I would see to a ductless unit versus a central air system is when you don’t currently have ductwork already in the house. Maybe you’re living in a house with a boiler, and you have been using those window units forever and ever, and there is no existing ductwork. Installing new ductwork in a home can be very intrusive to the interior of the home, as well as very costly to put in there after the house was built.

Many of my customers who don’t already have ductwork available, like the fact that they’re able to air condition the rooms that they want and get the temperatures they want without having to tear down sheetrock, or cut holes in ceilings and things of that nature. I would think there’s a ton of advantages and it really just applies to what each customer wants to do with their own home.

Advantages of Zoned Cooling

John: Right. And like you said, with that zoning, if you have say a home office or something like that, and you’re home during the day, but you’re really only using that home office. You can just cool off that office and not waste the energy of having to cool off the entire house, or maybe you’re in the home office, and your spouse is in the living room or something like that. But you like to have your office a lot cooler than they like to have it in the living room. You can adjust the temperature, and make them different in each of those rooms. That’s just a huge advantage over that single zone central air system.

Matt: Absolutely, I’ve dealt with numerous couples, and obviously again, I’m married myself, and it’s amazing how in most cases, there’s one person who always wants it a little warmer and one person who always wants it a little cooler in the home. This type of system will give you that ability to not battle at the thermostat quite so often. A lot of my customers really love that flexibility.

Noise Levels of Ductless ACs

John: Right, Tim, how quiet is a ductless air conditioner? We said that it’s a lot quieter than a window air conditioner, but how quiet are we talking about compared to those old style of window AC units?

Tim: You know what’s a funny thing, John, is sometimes when I go back to do a quality check and see how a ductless system’s running for somebody you’ll see little ribbons tied to the bottom, and I always ask what they’re for, and their answer is always the same. They say, “I can’t tell when it’s on, the ribbons help me see the air moving.” Because once you take that heat and humidity out of the space, you don’t need the same amount of BTUs to maintain that level of comfort. So a Mitsubishi system will ramp itself down to the point where you could barely hear it running. It’s pretty cool.

John: Right, absolutely. Like you said, it’s not just that, on full blast, and then off, and then on full blast kind of situation, where it might go kind of heavy at first, to cool off the room when you first turn it on, but then if you’re just leaving it on constantly, it only has to just add that little bit of cooling just to maintain the temperature and the humidity in the room. It works very quietly. It’s sort of whisper quiet almost, right?

Tim: Yeah. What’s a neat way to put it? Cause we all drive cars and it’s an easy way to use a car as an example. Imagine you got in your car, and the only way you could go is full throttle or no throttle, that’s a window unit. Once you put the accelerator in where you can feather it to the speed that you want to be at, or almost set your cruise control, it’s going to be a much more comfortable ride in that car, not full throttle or no throttle. So the Mitsubishi system really gives you that advantage to really be comfortable and quiet.

Heat Pumps: AC Only or Heating and Cooling?

John: So since we’re talking about ductless air conditioning, tell me a little bit about the air conditioning versus also being able to do heat. Do all of the units provide both air conditioning and heat or do some of the units only provide one or the other. What are maybe some of the advantages of getting a system that provides air conditioning and heat?

Matt: Well, there are a lot of different systems out there on the market. There are some AC only systems. We generally don’t do a lot of those systems. The main reason is that for only a few dollars more, and when you’re looking at a project like this, to be able to provide that low cost supplemental heat on top of one of the highest efficiency rated air conditionings on the market, is kind of a no brainer.

What I’ve always said is that if a customer was to choose for us to put in an air conditioning only version, I didn’t do a very good job of explaining the benefits of the other models. On a case-by-case basis we can always address that, but in our minds you really get your most bang for the buck when you use an actual heat pump attached to those mini-splits and are able to get the benefit on both the heating and cooling side.

Contact Jones Services to Talk About Ductless ACs

John: All right. Well, that’s really great information. Tim and Matt, thanks again for speaking with me today.

Tim: Thanks. John.

Matt: Hey, no problem, John.

John: For more information, you can visit the website at jonesservices.com or call (845)294-1010.