Whether you’re interested in reducing your carbon footprint or lowering your utility bill, installing a ductless mini-split in your Amherst, NY, home could be the perfect solution. Ductless mini-splits provide zoned heating and cooling. They offer direct air delivery and use a highly efficient heat transfer process. Following are five ways a ductless mini-split system can help you save both energy and money.
1. Sidestep Problems With Leaky Air Ducts
Aging, unsealed, and uninsulated HVAC air ducts can account for up to 50% of the energy waste in homes with central heating and cooling. Before hot air is distributed by a central heating system, it has to travel through a complex network of metal ducting. Given that much of its heat is lost along the way, central furnaces are forced to work both harder and longer to get their jobs done.
When air ducts are leaky, much of the heated air that central furnaces produce winds up being deposited behind drywall. The result is more work for heating systems, increased energy use, and diminished home comfort.
Ductless mini-split heat pumps distribute heated air right where its sourced. This eliminates all heat loss prior to distribution and reduces the energy required for creating and maintaining comfortable temperatures indoors.
2. Get Rid of Inefficient Heating and Cooling Equipment
Ductless mini-split systems are frequently installed in homes that lack HVAC ducting. If you’re using baseboard heaters, wall heaters, or window air conditioners for temperature control, you’re spending a lot of unnecessary cash on heating and cooling. These outdated and notoriously inefficient appliances are also greatly increasing your carbon footprint. In homes that lack ducting, mini-splits make it possible to get whole-house heating and cooling without paying for post-construction ductwork.
3. Experience the Benefits of Heat Transfer
Ductless mini-splits are available as heat pumps or air conditioners. If you want year-round heating and cooling, a high-performing ductless mini-split heat pump will meet your needs even when the outside temperatures are freezing. Best of all, these units don’t use fuel combustion to produce heat. Unlike furnaces that combust gas or heating oil, ductless mini-split systems only require a modest amount of electricity to power their basic operations.
Rather than creating heated or cooled air, they simply move hot air from one location to another. Just like air conditioners, ductless heat pumps cool homes down by transferring warm indoor air outside. When heat pumps are used for heating, they operate in reverse to source heat from the outdoor air and move it into buildings.
High-efficiency furnaces can have annual fuel utilization efficiency ratings as high as 98.5%. This means that just 1.5% of the fuel they use is lost during combustion. Comparatively, ductless heat pumps can produce three times the heat energy that they consume in electric energy. This makes their maximum efficiency as high as 300%. No matter how you calculate your carbon footprint, these ratings make ductless mini-split heat pumps the clear winner.
4. Service Remote Areas of Your Home
Many homes have one or more remote rooms that don’t get heated or cooled air from their central HVAC systems. In your house, this might be a finished basement, a functional attic space, or your garage.
Not only can the absence of a fixed heating and cooling solution render these areas uninhabitable during times of weather extremes, but it can also create the conditions for untimely heat loss or heat gains. For instance, if you open the door to your attic during the winter when the heater is on, much of your hot indoor air will migrate here. Hot air can also slip into unserviced areas through cracks and gaps in building materials via a process known as induction. With a ductless mini-split, you can keep all of the remote, under-serviced areas of your home at a comfortable, moderate temperature all of the time. You can also limit the work your central HVAC system must do.
5. Stop Paying to Heat or Cool Unused Rooms
While central HVAC systems heat and cool homes uniformly, ductless mini-splits make it possible to establish different temperatures in different areas of the building. This means you don’t have to waste energy on rooms that no one is using. It also means that building residents can get the customized heating and cooling service they need. If you have one or more people in your home who constantly run fans or space heaters to achieve their preferred temperatures, a ductless mini-split will render this additional energy use unnecessary.
We’re committed to helping residents of Amherst, NY, save money and lower their carbon footprints. Along with our ductless services, we provide heating and cooling installation, maintenance, and repair services. You can also turn to us for ductless mini-split systems, home generators, tankless water heaters, and indoor air quality solutions. Contact Heatwave Heating & Cooling today to schedule an appointment.
