You hear tons of talk about the benefits of ductless mini split heat pumps in the summer. For your air conditioning needs, they’re truly amazing.
But what about during the fall and winter? Some homeowners are skeptical that one system can do both cooling and heating effectively. In this post, we’ll help you see how a ductless system’s unique features make it a prime choice for heating.
Warm Air Loss Through Ducts Is Not An Issue
One of the biggest benefits of ductless systems is, well, the fact that they’re ductless! Ducts are fine for whole-house heating and cooling, but they do come with a bit of extra maintenance. Duct systems require the proper amount of insulation—in the right areas—to ensure that your heated air is not lost in the winter.
Since ductless systems don’t use the ducts at all, you can skip all of that. The rooms containing a ductless air handler will have no issue heating up.
Even if one of your rooms is still particularly cold and take longer to heat up, you’ll at least know that the problem lies in that room and not somewhere in a long chain of ductwork.
Greater Flexibility With Zone Control
“Zone control” is the ability for your HVAC system to heat or cool particular sections, or zones, of your home. This allows you to run different temperatures through the home.
With a traditional ducted system, your options for heating are A) heat the entire home or B) heat none of the home. But what about if your kids are off at school and you now have extra bedrooms that are rarely used? Using the energy to heat those rooms is inefficient. And closing the vents in those rooms isn’t actually going to save you any money (it can even be harmful to the system).
Ductless heat pumps come to the rescue once again. One of the best conveniences of a ductless heat pump is their zoning features—simply because they have zone control built into them! If everyone is in the living room watching Christmas movies, the bedroom air handlers can stay off. When bedtime comes, you can turn off the living room air handler and power on the bedroom handlers.
Zone control lets you use your heating system smarter, and that translates into less money spent on energy bills.
Backup Heating Modes for Extra Cold Temperatures
Heat pumps heat your home by recycling warm air. Yes, even when it’s cold outside, there’s still warm air out there that your heat pump can use! It is true, however, that very low temperatures can diminish the efficiency of your heat pump.
But this isn’t something to worry about. Heat pumps are equipped with auxiliary heating modes that kick on when the temperatures become too low. Your home will stay warm and you won’t even notice the difference.
Some brands of heat pump even use variable-speed compressors to maintain warmth without the use of auxiliary heating. Regardless of what brand of heat pump you choose, they won’t leave you in the cold.
