Anyone have experience with Ductless Mini Split ACs?

Spacy9

Spacy9

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My Home theater room is Approximately 14' X 18', or about 252 sq ft. It has 9 foot ceilings and is in the basement. The room has 7 seats and it does have one AC/Heater vent in the ceiling and one return.

80% of the time there are only the 4 of us, or the kids with their friends watching a movie and the temperature is still bearable by the end of the movie. However if family is over and we have all 7 seats filled it gets pretty toasty in there, even with the whole home AC on.

I've been trying to come up with a way to keep it cooler in there and not spend a ton more money on the problem. The best solution I can see is a Ductless Mini Split AC such as this:

Amazon Link

I know that I don't need a 12,000 BTU AC unit for the size of my room, but with the projector and all the equipment I want to go a little bigger so it doesn't have to work so hard.

So my questions are:

1) Does anyone here have one of these and how do they work? Any specific brand you recommend over another? (I've seen Mitsubishi, Lennox, Trane, Pioneer, etc...)

2) If you have one are they really as quiet on the inside piece as I've read?

3) Do you know if it would be an issue drilling through the foundation wall (in the basement) to run the pipes. It looks like you need a 3" hole for everything. My wife is worried since it is the foundation I'd be drilling through.

A bit more information on the room. Three of the walls are concrete behind the drywall, the only wall that isn't concrete goes into the rest of the basement.

Thanks for any input.
 
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I helped a friend install a ductless AC (Mitsubishi was the brand) and it was a very painless process compared to a full traditional AC installation. However we didn't not drill through his foundation.

Here a small video giving you the jest of what it will take to install it. http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/video/0,,1630888,00.html

As far as drilling into your foundation I'm wary of offering you advice as there could be structural issues with your foundation I might not be aware of and thus it would possibly create a dangerous situation. I would recommend you get a professional who installs mini-splits regularly and have him come over and provide you with an estimate (even if you would rather do it on your own) and ask him then if drilling into the foundation , in your case , is safe to do.

Hope that helps.
 
The line that is used to remove excess water / moisture from the mini split traditionally relies on gravity on the drain line to expel water. You might need a condensate pump for the drain line. You should get a HVAC tech to do a site survey (they are free) .
 
We have a load of Mitsubishi splits at work, they are usually very quiet in operation.

With regards to the hole, a building engineer should be able to tell you straight off if the house can cope with a small hole in the foundation, and a much better bet is to use a diamond core drill as it will be quicker and neater
 
I would get the actual drilling/install done professionally unless you are savvy with drilling through concrete and sealing the space around the pipe properly afterwards (you do not want to introduce water issues).
 
Thanks everyone, I appreciate all the feedback.

I had planned on doing this myself, but I am now thinking getting a professional might be the way to go :) The house is only a year old, so messing up the foundation would be a really bad thing, heck messing up any houses foundation would be bad...

As far as gravity to drain the condensation away from the inside unit I think I'm OK. From my measurements the ceiling height (9ft) is 4 1/2 feet above the ground on the outside of the house. So my plan was to mount this at 7ft inside which should be about 2 1/2 feet above ground outside - I'm hoping this all makes sense.

I'll call my normal HVAC guy today and see if he has any experience installing these units.

Any more feedback would be great as well.
 
Spacy9 said:
Wow, that is quiet. I'm guessing the inside piece is just as quiet if not more so?
Click to expand...

I installed mine in a 35'x15' addition, the inside units has several speeds. On the lowest speed which mine is at 100% of the time it is almost completely silent. If you listen carefully you can tell it's running but that's it. I have heard to the fastest speeds by leaving it off and letting the room warm up and switching it on, on high speed if is much more noticeable, but I leave it on auto 24-7 and it never runs more than the lowest speed having no trouble keeping the room at 71F even in 95F weather.

Note, to install it yourself you MUST have a proper vacuum pump, to vac out the ambient air in the lines prior to releasing the charge.

Edit:

If you'd like to hear the inside unit, let me know and i'll put up a video. Also, you won't need the 12k BTU, get the 9k which is the one in my video.
 
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