Installing A Mini-Split System To Keep Your Historic Home Cool? Here Are 3 Reasons To Choose Ducted Air Handlers

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Mini-split air conditioning systems are a great choice for historic homes, since they don't require extensive ductwork in order to function. Adding the air ducts necessary to support central air in a historic home can be impossible or prohibitively expensive, so using a mini-split system is an easier way to keep your home cool during the hottest months of the year.

These systems use small conduits to transfer refrigerant between an outdoor compressor unit and indoor air handling units. The air handlers use the refrigerant to produce cool air. The conduits are small and can almost always be hidden easily within the walls, even in historic homes.

Mini-split air conditioning systems offer both ducted and ductless air-handlers. Ductless air handlers are installed on the wall inside of a room, where they continually produce cool air and circulate it around. Ducted air handlers are typically installed in a closet, and they're connected to several small, flexible ducts that are run through the wall into adjacent rooms in order to keep them cool. When you're installing a mini-split system in a historic home, ducted air handlers are often the better option. To learn three reasons why, read on.

1. Ducted Air Handlers Won't Affect the Appearance of Your Home

The primary benefit of using ducted air handlers is that they're easy to hide within a closet. For example, you can place them within a small hallway closet or a closet in a bedroom. Ductless air handlers need to be mounted on either the ceiling, wall, or floor of a room, which makes them highly visible. They can't be easily hidden, either, since hiding them behind furniture would block the flow of air from the unit into the room.

When you own a historic home, the modern look of a ductless unit can clash with the rest of your decor — it's certainly not authentic to the time period in which your home was built. Using ducted air handlers, on the other hand, eliminates the need for a highly visible air handler. A ducted air handler that is hidden in a closet can be connected to small registers within adjacent rooms, allowing the ducted air handler to keep the rooms cool without being noticeable.

2. Ducted Air Handlers Are Better Suited for Homes With Poor Airflow

In addition to being more hidden, ducted air handlers also typically offer better cooling performance in historic homes. A ductless air handler only blows cool air into the room that it's located in, which can be a problem in historic homes with smaller doorways, narrower hallways and poorer insulation. Cool air may remain trapped within the room the air handler is in or leak out before it reaches nearby rooms.

This is less of a problem for ductless units in homes with modern, open-concept home design, since it's easier for air to circulate throughout the entire home. However, poor airflow can substantially impair a ductless air handler's ability to keep a historic home cool. Ducted air handlers allow you to pipe air wherever you need it through the small, flexible ducts, which improves air circulation and helps cool your home evenly.

3. Ducted Systems Are Typically Less Expensive

Finally, the overall cost of installing ducted air handlers is often less than installing ductless ones. When you need to spread out cooling across an entire home, it's easier to do it when you have the ability to cool multiple rooms at once with a single ducted air handler. You'll often be able to use fewer air handlers when you're using ducted ones, which helps to lower the overall cost of purchasing and installing your new cooling system.

If your historic home is uncomfortably hot during the summer and you're thinking about installing a mini-split air conditioning system in order to keep it comfortable, consider using ducted air handlers instead of ductless ones — they're easier to hide and they typically offer better cooling performance. To get started, contact an air conditioning service in your area and have them examine the layout of your home — they'll be able to tell you where they'll be able to hide the ducted units in order to keep your historic home cool without affecting its period character.

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