using minispits in bedrooms, for to HVAC bathroom?
steveeee
| Posted in Mechanicals on
hi, i’m building a new 3 bed 3 bath house, all bath are en-suit. i plan to use 4 minisplits, one per bedroom and one for living room, but what do i do to HVAC the bathrooms?
thanks
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Replies
I'd use ductwork instead of ductless minisplits. Much easier to maintain, replace, and will be better matched to the load of these rooms. Very cheap to run a duct into a bathroom.
It would be very helpful for us to know your approximate location or climate in order to answer this question well. At least tell us a metro area or a climate zone. You might get different advice if you are in a mild climate vs. a very cold climate, for example.
NOTE: If you edit your question (or begin to submit another question), see at the end where it says: "Advice can depend on climate – Please specify your climate zone in your question. Not sure what your climate zone is? View our CLIMATE ZONE MAP." Click on the "CLIMATE ZONE MAP" link. (It doesn't appear to be a link, but its a link, and this should have been fixed but wasn't.) Clicking the link will bring up the climate zone map. Then you can tell us your climate zone.
Almost certainly, the advice you will get will be: A mini split per bedroom is overkill. As Paul stated above, a ducted mini split, with ductwork to each bedroom (and the baths if you wish) likely makes more sense in most cases, unless you can't install ducts for some other reason. With each bedroom having its own ensuite bath, both the bedroom and ensuite bathroom might be heated or cooled reasonably well by a single duct register.
Including a floor plan diagram or simple drawing, or describing the floor plan layout would be helpful as well.
i thought all minisplits were ductless. i didn't build the house with enough space to run ducts realy.
it in eastern NC so hot summers, mild winters, 1200sq on 2 floors, 600 per floor.
i was looking at some minisplits on amazon, 12000 btu for $699. seemed like 4 of them is not too expensive but if there a better option i'd love it. i could maybe run ducks but i don't have space inside for a air handler either.
Minisplits is just extremely confusing terminology used by manufacturers. They can be ducted or ductless, with a lot of variation in between.
12,000 btu/bedroom (4 tons for only 1200 sqft) is much too big. You could probably get by with 1-1.5 tons for that space.
If you have time for some redesign, I'd go with ducts. That way you're only dealing with one outdoor unit, which is much easier to replace and provides better filtering. Plus the humidity removal for a central unit is usually vastly superior to a ductless head. One option would be a low static ducted minisplit which could consolidate the system from 4 to 2 if the rooms are close enough.
steve,
Mini-splits is just a (poor) way of describing small air-to air heat pumps. They can have ducts or be ductless. You don't necessarily need four complete systems, just four inside heads.
The simplest solution for the small rooms that don't warrant a mini-split head is to supply them with electric resistance heat.
If you don't have room for ducts, what are you planning on doing for mechanical ventilation?