As heat waves are becoming more common, lots more people are wanting air conditioning in places where it was previously seen as a waste of money. Retrofitting existing housing with central air generally isn’t feasible, so all types of air conditioning have their place. The worst are portable units, but in a lot of places they’re the only option that works.
Mini splits air conditioners (the one on the right) have some major advantages over central air.
With central air there’s one big condenser and evaporator for the whole house and dampers are used to block the chilled/heated air to zones that aren’t requesting for air. Since all the zones share the same air source, the more zones that need heated/cooled the slower it’ll take. This system also prevents one zone from requesting heating while another requests cooling as the system can only do one at a time.
Now with mini splits each zone gets it’s own condenser and evaporator meaning each zone is free to heat/cool to each zones needs and airflow isn’t effected by other zones. The biggest reason why mini splits are better though is because if there is an issue you’ll only lose one zone instead of the entire HVAC as you would with a central unit.
Of course I’m being silly, but here in the Netherlands I’ve really not needed it that much in my current house. Only my home office and attic get a bit too warm, but I have alternatives for those rooms and I’ve only seen my living room get up to 26 degrees at the hottest. For a few days a year I think that isn’t that bad or worth the hassle and cost of an AC.
My previous house was much worse. A couple of years ago it got up to 40 degrees Celsius and it was 34 degrees in my living room.
Since I live in the arctic my home is well insulated, which is great because it also keeps heat out! Buuuuut it also traps in all the heat that accumulates over the 60+ days over 20c we’ve had this year…
I can’t get to sleep in temps above 20-21c and my livingroom being over 24c or so would make me have horrible migraines.
Consider a series of smaller units and one outdoor unit. Together they do the exact same thing as your central ac but for 1/4 of the price.
Imagine 1/4th the electric bill! Then look at your current setup and ask yourself whatever you need about the east coast, as long as you need… everyone else has the same cooling as you with 1/4 the cost. Sooo central or bust amiright? Keep paying / throwing away your money, more than everyone else… and why?
Look into the engineering of evaporating and condensing a material in a slightly different way than you are used to… it’s not weird.
Forget the hippy shit. You are paying 4-5x the cost for the same result. Feel free to keep throwing away money. The rest of us don’t care. We’re not on the “east coast” but we pay less than you regardless…
Central air conditioning system or bust 😂
For real though, never lived in a place that had these window units. Guess these are more common on the east coast.
As heat waves are becoming more common, lots more people are wanting air conditioning in places where it was previously seen as a waste of money. Retrofitting existing housing with central air generally isn’t feasible, so all types of air conditioning have their place. The worst are portable units, but in a lot of places they’re the only option that works.
Mini splits air conditioners (the one on the right) have some major advantages over central air.
With central air there’s one big condenser and evaporator for the whole house and dampers are used to block the chilled/heated air to zones that aren’t requesting for air. Since all the zones share the same air source, the more zones that need heated/cooled the slower it’ll take. This system also prevents one zone from requesting heating while another requests cooling as the system can only do one at a time.
Now with mini splits each zone gets it’s own condenser and evaporator meaning each zone is free to heat/cool to each zones needs and airflow isn’t effected by other zones. The biggest reason why mini splits are better though is because if there is an issue you’ll only lose one zone instead of the entire HVAC as you would with a central unit.
Just move to a temperate climate. I’ve never had AC and only regret that for about 5 days a year. You learn to plow through that.
With climate change, those regrettable 5 days a year will become months long in the coming years.
deleted by creator
But then you just move to a temperate climate again ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
As someone that lives in the arctic my AC (Inverter heat pump) has been running daily for over 2 months this year.
I miss summers where we didn’t have two months over 20c, I have no idea where I can move to get away from this fucking unbearable heat at this point.
Of course I’m being silly, but here in the Netherlands I’ve really not needed it that much in my current house. Only my home office and attic get a bit too warm, but I have alternatives for those rooms and I’ve only seen my living room get up to 26 degrees at the hottest. For a few days a year I think that isn’t that bad or worth the hassle and cost of an AC.
My previous house was much worse. A couple of years ago it got up to 40 degrees Celsius and it was 34 degrees in my living room.
Since I live in the arctic my home is well insulated, which is great because it also keeps heat out! Buuuuut it also traps in all the heat that accumulates over the 60+ days over 20c we’ve had this year… I can’t get to sleep in temps above 20-21c and my livingroom being over 24c or so would make me have horrible migraines.
Consider a series of smaller units and one outdoor unit. Together they do the exact same thing as your central ac but for 1/4 of the price.
Imagine 1/4th the electric bill! Then look at your current setup and ask yourself whatever you need about the east coast, as long as you need… everyone else has the same cooling as you with 1/4 the cost. Sooo central or bust amiright? Keep paying / throwing away your money, more than everyone else… and why?
Look into the engineering of evaporating and condensing a material in a slightly different way than you are used to… it’s not weird.
Forget the hippy shit. You are paying 4-5x the cost for the same result. Feel free to keep throwing away money. The rest of us don’t care. We’re not on the “east coast” but we pay less than you regardless…