Single Minisplit Expectations for Entire Main Floor?

swellman

Hi, we are considering adding a single Mitsubishi minisplit to our main floor (size is flexible) but are trying to understand how much it will impact the entire floor versus one area/room.

We seem to have pretty low air circulation due to the lack of duct work (we have rads versus a furnace). On our second floor we installed one mini in each room (4 total) and with 2/4 doors open we don’t seem to get *that* much cooling of the hall area. There remains a clear temp diff from main floor to hall, and hall to any bedroom but it's surprising how cold the room feels and how hot the hall can still feel comparatively.

I’ve attached our floor plan and where we'd like to put our minisplit ideally (open to suggestions).

The question is will we feel any real improvement on the opposite side of the house? Would cooling make it to the kitchen even?

Jamie Hall

Unless you put some good size fans in doorways I doubt that you'll get much effect from the minisplit outside the room it is located in.

EBEBRATT-Ed

To do the main floor you probably need 3 mini splits. LR, DR and den. I wouldn't expect you need to cool the laundry room.

Ironman

“Feel” is a very subjective word. What might “feel” good to one may not to another.

If I were designing it, there would be at least two heads, preferably three.

pecmsg

Is there a basement?

Ducted Mini

swellman

@pecmsg - there is a basement with a furnace room. I don’t know much about ducted minis. Could you share a good example link?

Robert O'Brien

swellman said:

@pecmsg - there is a basement with a furnace room. I don’t know much about ducted minis. Could you share a good example link?

Why not just add cooling to the existing ducted system?

pecmsg

Heating and A/C require different velocity of air flow. Rarely can heating only ducts be used for A/C

swellman

We don’t have existing ducts of any kind. Our furnace room is for our boiler system. I take it the ducted mini then is like adding ducts with the mini doing the output?

pecmsg

Ducted minis are an option. 2 or 3 supplies. Very low static pressure. 

Find someone that knows them and it’s done 

swellman

@pecmsg - How much depth does a ducted mini duct take away from your ceiling space? We have pretty strict height requirements we need to maintain in the basement due to the legal apartment unit we have down there and are currently renting out. We can run some lines in places but depending on the exact minimum depth we can get away with it might inhibit all the areas we can actually run them to.