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I'd trust split type.

In Brazil they're quite popular, because installation is much easier than "through the wall" air conditioners, they are much more efficient (I mean, really much more) and the noise is also nearly zero (you can hear the air, but not the motor).

Central A/C has the hassle and the space lost with ducts, blus the PITA of having to cool the whole house (it makes no sense at all).
Ok, some central A1Cs allow closing the registrers, but you nearly always have the full power being used for only one or two rooms and the air is almost always pushed to the room where the thermostat is in most installations. Not exactly efficient.

Also, you have the whole house depending on only one system. If it fails, the whole house will be hot. If you have to replace it, it's F-word expensive because it's ONE huge unit for the whole house.

With split type air conditioners, you have several smaller units, one for each room.

Installation is cheaper as you don't need to buy them all at once, you can plan ahead and even finace one unit at a time. The installation itself usually takes no longer than 1.5 hours.

If something goes wrong and one unit stops working, you still have the rest of the house. You can keep the doors open and use the other units to compensate the out of order unit, or simply ignore that room, close the door and you have other rooms comfortable.

Now the electricity savings is the most attractive feature. Why cool the whole house if you're alone sleeping in the bedroom? Just turn off the other units, close the bedroom door, show the middle finger to the rest of the house that will be freaking hot and keep only your bedroom comfortably cold.

If you want to cool the whole house, ok, no problem, just turn all the units on. Even doing that the energy consumption will be less than a single central unit because you're not pushing air through several feet of ducts.

Other factor is the air quality. How clean are the ducts in a central A/C? With ductless split type systems, each unit has it's own filter and the air stays in the same room.

No more A/C pushing the bacon grease from the kitchen to the master bedroom.

And as the systems are fully independent, there is also the comfort factor. No more fighting because of the thermostat. If one person wants to sleep at 32F and wake up like a popsicle and the other wants to sleep at 600F, and wake up "self cleaned" just like an oven, who cares? each room has it's own independent system.
 
"always a good idea to buy a BTU rating for your space with a little bit of overkill.... "

That is interesting since have always been told and or researched the opposite; that something slightly smaller is better than larger when it comes to air conditioning.

Rationale being that an oversized unit will cycle off sooner than it should thus not remove moisture from air to make things comfortable.

Not exactly same, but during past heat wave noticed that if set the WallMaster to 72F or 73F it cooled things nicely and didn't cycle on and off much. OTOH if thermostat was set to 75F the thing cycled constantly to point of being annoying.

Since everyone is going on about split AC:





 
removal of moisture from the air is one thing, sucking the water out of the plants, aquarium, and causing dry skin is going a bit too far....

going a thousand or two larger for window units is not a bad idea, I can always dial down the thermostat versus a unit running constantly to keep up....

this is just my personal preference, you know me, size matters.....I used to run 4 units, kitchen and living room 2-10,000 and 2 bedrooms 2-5,000....and a 200.00+ electric bill to go with it....

I switched to one 30,000 unit in the dining room, which covers the whole area now, speed on Med, and temp set at 4......very comfortable, cycles on when needed, and a super low electric bill.....

this unit is climbing on 22 years old, I cringe at the day it gives up on me, as I wont find another one like it.....everyone who sees it wants one....I also guess what works with a unit of this size is an open floor plan.....you can appreciate its power with a house full of people, or when you fire up the stove, adjust the dial, and it will chill down quickly...

yogitunes-2018070910063307075_1.jpg
 
that's the sad part there with Sears.....they slap their name on just about anything now....

back in the 80's when I got the Kenmore's, they were built by Whirlpool, but like all Kenmores, to Sears own specifications, somewhat a better look, seriously quieter fans, and extra features you wouldn't find on the Whirlpool counterpart...

just thinking of the plug I have to run this...250V-30amp...comparable to a dryers plug...

yogitunes-2018070915354100046_1.jpg
 
That is just Kenmore

Other brands offer room air conditioners (through wall or window) up to 30,000 btu of cooling power.

https://www.friedrich.com/products/commercial/window

As mentioned previously, Friedrich offers a "unifit" model of through wall AC designed to work with any existing sleeve.

https://www.friedrich.com/products/commercial/thru-the-wall/uni-fit

Found this interesting; Friedrich no longer has a WallMaster units at 10,000 btu on 115v. One can have 9800 btu or 1200 btu on that voltage, but the 10,000 to 9,900 unit now is 220v only.

https://www.friedrich.com/products/commercial/thru-the-wall/wallmaster/details?Tab=2

@Louis:

Kenmore does seem to offer larger window AC in 25,000 and 18,000 btu; but those are 220v units. https://www.kenmore.com/products/ai...ing/air-conditioners/window-air-conditioners/
 
@Louis

True, but since Kenmore is nothing more than a brand name Sears slaps on things made by others, a true "apples to apples" comparison would have to be made by looking at full product line of whoever produces these ACs.

It might very well be that company in question does offer through wall units with btu power greater than 12000, but Sears for reasons of their own doesn't bother.
 
mine is a window/wall unit.....I had to leave off the side curtains to fit the window opening....

the unit has two screws at the bottom that lock it in place, plus its screwed in from the sides to keep it secure in the window.....

there have been cases of gaining entrance into a home from thieves by sliding a screwdriver underneath, and pushing the unit into the home...
 
I've had our current Mitubishi mini split since I think 2010 or was it 2011. .. anyways,, the filtering system on it is crap.. most of the air goes around and behind those flexible thin filter things and then sticks on the blades of the squirell cage fan, which in turn gets bogged down and has required disassembly every 2 years, at a cost. It's currently not working and the repairman is coming in the morning.. I won't be buying another Mitsubishi mini split again unless they redesign the whole filter system.
 
Austin... what kind of central ac system is it you're talking about? Over here central air generally refers to a fan forced ducted furnace/air conditioner where the evaporator is in the furnace and the condenser unit sits outside. There are ductless mini split systems available with ceiling cassettes but they're much less common right now. More common is just the straight forward mini split unit set up on the wall high up,, perhaps two or 3 of those depending on the size of the house etc They all need to be wired and and the coolant tubes plumbed to the outside condenser as well as having a drain tube
 
AC guys showed up this a.m. and as suspected my Freon was low... so he's put in some dye and charged it up and we'll see what happens over the course of the next week or so,, if not sooner. Days I wished we just had a regular forced air furnace and air conditioner... this thing is hundreds of dollaring me to death every couple of years.. :(
 
Pete,

I've had a Climataire split system in the bedroom for 10 years and touch wood....never had a problem with it. I do clean the filters every season and I did have the service guy out to check it over a couple of years ago. Last summer I had a Carriere split system installed in the living area. I've only used it a handful of times so not sure what its reliability is going to be. It did come with a 5 year warranty.

Gary
 
Some good friends of my Parents

Had a huge Coldspot window unit, 28000 btu, I never saw it turned over halfway on the thermostat and the fan was always on low and their house was always cold!it lasted almost 40 years and the compressor died, I think lightning got it.
 
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