Mitsubishi wall A/C's
We don’t have central air. Our parlor floor has no windows which accomodate window A/c units. we need to find a solution if we are going to stay in this house- which we will, as summers are hideous on that floor- especially in the kitchen!! People have mentionned these Mitsubishi units installed into the wall(I…
We don’t have central air. Our parlor floor has no windows which accomodate window A/c units. we need to find a solution if we are going to stay in this house- which we will, as summers are hideous on that floor- especially in the kitchen!! People have mentionned these Mitsubishi units installed into the wall(I assume with an access to outdoor…not sure how they work). Is there a massive outdoor unit too? Anyone have experience with these? Cost? effectiveness? where do you find them? Who installs them? etc..
Thanks!
6:12, I didn’t say you couldn’t put it on the roof, I said it had to be properly installed. Ask an HVAC contractor, don’t believe me or anything else you read here š
THese Mr. Slims are not made for multi-floor installations, there is generally one per floor. So you hang them off the _back_ of the brownstone. Look around, you’ll see them everywhere.
cmu, you could be right, probably there is some weight beneath which it is not an issue, but I don’t know what that weight is.
Anyway the OP was referring to a parlor floor, so I believe he wouldn’t want to do a roof install.
Great to know of an actual install. Re: drainage, some have an optional pump which sucks out the condensate and you don’t have to worry about slope of drain line or internal drainage. OP: for typical parlor floor, two internal units (say 9k each) can be hooked to one external. With a bigger external unit, you can have up to 4.
To 5;24, is this true for these small units? iirc, a mr Slim is about 120 lbs.
Denton, If you can’t put it on the roof, how do you use these units for the front of the house? Are you supposed to hang the external part off the front of your brownstone? Something tells me the LPC won’t like that too much.
You can’t install an A/C unit in the roof, afaik, altho i have seen it done, unless it sits on steel beams. Against fire code, in a fire, roof burns, AC crashes thru roof on firefighter heads.
“Can you do that with these? Can you run several internal units off the same external part? I’m looking at a place and considering this type of AC after hearing a horrendous cost for central air from my architect. Did you put in additional units for your upper floors?”
Yes, some models will support 2 inside units. And, they can be fairly remote.
5:07 you say “If I had it to do over again, I would have had the outside unit installed on the roof, since it would probably cool my entire house!”
Can you do that with these? Can you run several internal units off the same external part? I’m looking at a place and considering this type of AC after hearing a horrendous cost for central air from my architect. Did you put in additional units for your upper floors?
To answer your questions, you are asking about a DUCTLESS A/C system. These work by avoiding the ductwork necessary for central AC – which is too expensive and visually disruptive in older houses – and replacing it with a fairly big outdoor unit hooked up to another, indoor unit. The outdoor unit can be mounted most anywhere, a wall a roof etc., but it ain’t small or pretty. There must be a very small opening (2-3 inches wide) to run the coolant inside. Then, there must be an additional opening that lets the interior unit drain condensation away to the outdoors. (The bonus from this is it will reduce the humidity in your house!) The water moves via gravity, so where ever you up the inside unit, you must be able to run a pipe to the outside that will drain.
As far as costs go, Mr. Slim units can be had on the Internet for substantially less than $3-5K. Try something called http://www.acwholesalers.com — they have a 22K BTU Unit, the largest you can buy for residential use, for $1.6K. It puts out more cold air than you could ever want. If you buy it via the Internet, you will need someone to install it for you, and you will probably also need an electrician to run the appropriate wiring (you’ll need 220V for the big 22K BTU units).
I bought my 22K BTU Mr. Slim via the Internet for something like $1,800 delivered by truck. Installation – which I got from Rumba Air (recommended by others here and also by me!) – cost about $800 and the electrician was another $800 or so. (Electrical could be substantially more depending on the expansion capacity of your fusebox and the existing state of your wiring, but you want it done right. Electrical fire = major drag).
Mine unit is installed in the kitchen which is on the parlor floor of our 4 story garden apt/triplex. I think the interior unit can be as much as 25 feet away from the exterior unit. If I had it to do over again, I would have had the outside unit installed on the roof, since it would probably cool my entire house! They are very quiet, very powerful (my parlor floor can be cooled to 65 degrees in summer in 15 minutes!), and extremely efficient – I never even noticed a change in my power bill after it was installed.
When the electrician came over to bid the job and saw the unit, he looked up, smiled, and gave me his “big thumbs up” signal. I knew I had made the right decision to get one.
There are off-brand units available for less than $1,000 – these work well and have ample cooling power. 12-24K BTU (one or two tonnes)
Try http://www.comfortmaker.com/
Installation is fairly easy – though you should have a ‘competent person.’
I wish someone would say they had this installed at a reasonable price, but mostly seems not. 18kbtu units (enough for 2 units in a parlor floor) are advertized for $3-5k on the web. So 16k for installation!? They are reasonably easy to install (professionally, that is), and, since only certified a/c handler can do final steps, I’ve thought about trying it myself with a moonlighting a/c installer (know any?)
OP: There’s a suitcase-sized unit (check outside of Connecticut Muffin or Al-de-La) with 2 small pipes running to inside, abt 36″x18x12, units (not too pretty, but there’s an LG model which mimics an oddball painting). Quiet. Efficient. The pipes are small but obviously obtrusive and would be best inside wall or soffit. There are length restrictions on pipe, and height difference limits.