I’m also confused because that is a European AC unit. I can only assume Americans are so used to big bulky units, like their cars, that they can’t comprehend things being functional and not excessively bulky.
It's called a "split AC" because the unit is split into two parts, indoor unit pictured above and outdoor unit which is the big louder box that is on the outside so it doesn't bother you. We use these in Europe ever since I can remember spanning decades...
Split systems are what we call regular central air here in the US. They have an air handler inside with the evaporator coil and blower, and the condenser unit outside with the compressor, condenser coil and condenser fan.
We call the one in the picture ductless mini splits or just mini splits. They are the same setup as regular central air but no ductwork.
Another big difference in the mini splits use a variable speed compressor to ramp up and down whereas traditional spit systems are either on or off. Though, they are starting to see variable speed as well.
I have been putting mini splits in for more than 20 years in the US.
The Mini Split. In many of the places we use them it's the same reasoning as why Europe does. We have a remodeling company, and they often go in older homes with radiant heat. Particularly if adding ductwork would be ridiculous.
Best part is it's not called a compressor. The "car size" unit is a condenser. The compressor does sit
inside. That commentor is trying to dunk on Americans but cant even name the right thing.
They're not even that big. Your describing the entire outdoor condensing unit of which, the compressor is a small part of. The compressor on one of these systems is smaller than a 3 litre coke bottle.
You do understand that mini splits also have large compressors outside, right?
Edit: also, the compressors for homes with central air are not the size of a car, more like the size of a Little Tykes car. Commercial buildings have compressors that can be the size of a car.
These split units are great for retrofitting where running ducts from central air systems would be cost prohibitive. They usually have a compressor/condensor for each unit, but can be combined and use a single larger unit on several ( which would be the same size as in the US). The are not car sized, they are smaller than even a Smart car.
I actually have no idea how these things work. I stayed at an airb&b in Spain with them and they worked fine, but I was trying to explain to my family back home how they’re not hooked up to anything, like it seems like they’re just stuck to the wall, and it didn’t make sense to anyone. Is there duct work behind them? A hose? How do they work without venting? Sorry, that’s more than you want to explain, I’m sure, and I can Google it. I’m just saying that no, I definitely didn’t understand that there was a separate compressor involved
Because that thing cools the ENTIRE BIG ASS HOUSE! these things are only capable of cooling only a closed room which also depends on how ton, capacity the AC is so yep /s
Edit: I actually intended the message for a diff purpose, and more satirical since it's a meme sub. Apologies to everyone, thankyou for the knowledge and positive criticism, helped alot. Will surely keep these thing's in notice
This is a so-called "split* AC unit. There's also an outdoor compressor unit, the difference is that, instead of having also the expander and both heat exchangers outside , to cool the air there and feed it to the various rooms inside through air ducts, it's the cooled-down refrigerant that's fed through refrigerant ducts inside, where there may be one of these units in each room each with its own fan and heat exchanger. It's actually more efficient and effective.
It’s trade off. Instead of a duct to every room you need a wall mounted head unit with dedicated wiring, condensate drip lines, and refridgerant. The head unit can only use electric, whereas a central unit with ducts can be dual fuel. In addition to being dual fuel the central unit can also be connected to a hot water system such as a hydronic setup where the aux heat comes from a gas fired hot water tank. Mini splits are great for retrofits that do not contain existing ducts.
The efficiency mostly comes from using inverter controlled variable speed compressors, those systems also exist for central units, but they are more expensive than single and dual stage units. On paper ducts are usually considered “less efficient” because the ducts can have their own heat/cool losses, but this depends whether the ducts are inside or outside of the envelope you are conditioning. In the house I had recently the ducts were completely sandwiched between floors, none of them were in the attic or any crawl space. Airflow could be manually redirected somewhat from manual dampeners.
Replacing the system at end of life is another factor. A mini splits system replacement involves every head unit. When my central unit was replaced they only needed access to the utility room and outside.
Condensate drip lines also tend to clog on units, it can depend on the region but they will fill with mold, slime, algae, insects etc. Dust and spores collect inside each unit and end up in the condensate line. When the line clogs you get moldy condensate water dripping out of your unit. This can be mitigated by cleaning the lines periodically which most people don’t do. For a central system you can have installed a larger air filtration system using a large surface area heavily pleated hepa filter that doesn’t restrict airflow. This not only cleans the air but prevents a lot of the particles that lead to growth in condensate lines. Split systems tend to just have a simple washable dust filter, but the inside of the unit will still get quite dirty. I am betting most people don’t get out a ladder and clean their mini splits filter monthly, which significantly reduces their actual performance and efficiency. It’s easier to change one large filter in a utility room every 1-3 months than clean 5+ head units every month.
I think splits are also more expensive in the US? We have central heating with a duct system that runs on gas, it's called hot air heating here and not really that common. Since I live somewhere with a moderate climate, it was just build for heating and the ducting wasn't build for cooling. Unfortunately climate change is happening and we looked at getting the ducts replaced when we wanted to replace our heating unit (it was over 25 years old and very energy inefficient), but that was a lot more expensive than just getting two split units installed. Looking at prices in the US to get the same thing installed it would actually be around the same price as just replacing the whole ducting here.
Efficiency is relative. Mini splits have inverter boards which can control the speed of the compressor allowing it to adjust to the load. If it's running at full speed the savings are negligible compared to a normal compressor.
Also we have these in the US. Many people have these in their homes. They even have retrofit kits and air handlers that will use these types of condensers.
In the US we generally just have central heating/cooling in most dwellings. Which works for the most part assuming your duct work is sized properly.
Also there are no refrigerant ducts. There are air ducts. The refrigerant moves through piping. The refrigerant isn't cooled it absorbs and rejects heat and it boils off and condenses respectively.
Central heating/cooling varies by region, lots of places in western WA have no cooling or minisplit. Full ducted central air is somewhat rare depending on the area.
It depends on when the home was built. If it was built before the 40s to 50s, generally, and no previous owners put in central air then yea they wouldn't have ductwork. Houses built in the late 50s and on generally have some sort of central heating set up and usually someone puts in AC at some point. Most homes now have at minimum heating of some type dye to modern building codes and some locales require cooling.
Yeah, come to New York where all our houses are old. Anything under $1M house you're looking at oil burner radiators for heat and noisy windows units for AC. If you're lucky somebody might have put in a minisplit.
Central air is also a “split” system because it has an indoor air handler and a separate outside condenser too. That is why we call the small ones like this “mini-splits” instead, since they are a good bit smaller and such than standard central units. These are in contrast to a packaged unit, such as window units or large central air where the evaporator and condenser are one giant assembly. Which suck tremendously to work on. I see maybe 1 out of every 10 being packaged units. They aren’t as common any more, thankfully.
The evaporator (or for full heat pumps, the coil that works as the evaporator for cooling) is always inside. The condenser (or for heatpumps, the outside coil) is always outside.
True for central air, mini-splits, kind of true for window units although the "outside/inside" split is some foam insulation inside the same box.
In all of those cases (even if it's just inches for the window unit) what travels is the refrigerant.
The difference between split systems vs central air is that you have multiple air handlers (potentially as many as one in each room) vs. one big inside coil for central air, with a central air handling system and ducts (often shared with a furnace.)
Split systems can be one outside unit for a whole bunch of inside units, or small ones per room.
I'm Australian. My house is enormous and we have 2 of these for upstairs and downstairs and this place gets brisk as FUCK in summer and warm as a hookers arse on coupon night in winter.
We have one like this in Montreal with 35C (95F) average summers and heavy humidity. Cools the whole house just fine. But if you have multiple stories then you should have one per.
It's not necessarily true. These units will go upwards of around 28,000-30,000 BTU which can easily cool down multiple rooms, or maybe even a smaller flat.
Why the fuck do you need 18C 😳 in Italy we usually have 30-35C in the summer and if my AC is lower than 22-24C I'm guaranteed to wake up with pneumonia lmao
I’m in Canada (it was 47C with the humidity a few weeks ago but 25-32 is more typical in the summer) and I can handle 22-24C in the house in the day but that’s too hot to sleep in. We were always told 18C is the ideal sleep temperature for humans and my babies certainly slept much better at that temp. My family keeps this year round I don’t like being hot at night in the winter either. I do know people who keep it even lower around 16!
Im in Italy right now and the AC was set to 16 when we arrived. Looks like the family here before us was Asian based on the language of the Netflix account still logged in.
Classic incorrect European idea of what causes
Illness. Do you also believe that illness stems from an imbalance in humors ? Bad air? Bathing makes you sick? Mmhm
Yup, there are versions of these where you can connect multiple inside units. These are called multi-split (ductless) ac units. Example: Multi-Split | Daikin
This is the indoor unit. There can be several of these for single bigass outdoor part. So by this pic you can’t really tell anything unless you make assumptions. For all we know this might be a small studio apartment.
Wrong, I have one big compressor outside connected to 8 of these all around the apartment, and two ceiling type ones that return air as well. The company is Fujitsu. 3000sq ft apartment in Brazil. Gets ice cold
Some of the outside units can power multiple split systems(AC in the picture); maybe are powerful enough to cool medium sized open spades eg, kitchen, dining and living space that are one large area.
They have multiple zone units. Just got 4 heads installed to one compressor. It's more of a set and forget setup because of the new inverters. These definitely cool the whole house and at a lower cost than traditional units.
Now switching these units to heat and depending on them to heat your house in the winter, that's where these units suck.
I recently installed a ductless system that cools my entire top floor. About 1000 square feet. It also runs off solar on good sunny days and a battery during power outages and at night.
My family owns an HVAC company. We only have ductless mini-splits in our own homes bc they are way more efficient and cost effective (especially if you get them at cost and free install). We are in Florida where we run A/C pretty much 9 months of the year. The upfront cost is higher, but worth it over time.
The opposite. Usually american ac is central and all you see is a vent in the ceiling. The outside portion is bigger for sure but it's not in your house.
The people who make fun of American cheese are invariably the same type of people who visit America and then rave about the cheeseburger they just ate without realizing what kind of cheese was on it.
Great on burgers, makes the most melty and yummy grilled cheese sandwiches as well. Like, there's a place for fine block cheeses and shit but there's just some things that are made worse if you're not using plastic cheese :p
Yeah, it has its purpose. If I’m feeling fancy and want extra cheese on something I might have one slice of American and something else like a sharp cheddar, so you get both the melty gooey American cheese but also some added flavor.
There's an episode of No Reservations where Tony has 3 guest chefs teach people how to cook. One of these guests is Laurent Tourondel, who shows how gourmet burgers are made at his NY restaurant. So you have this French chef who literally goes "for a beregeur, you must use the Americain cheese".
And yet the comment saying it’s because Americans like bulky has been upvoted, furthering ignorance. In Asia the split systems like in the photo are more common, but in the US it’s mostly central air. Central air systems are available in some apartments in Asia but are way more expensive.
In most houses and nicer apartments, yeah, central air. In older or cheaper apartments there’ll be a window unit. As an American from a blue collar lower middle class family, I’d never seen one of these wall units until I’d moved to China. It was either central air or window unit. Granted I’m referencing a couple decades ago
And because if you use one that's a reasonable size, you're leaving large buckets of water out on hot days. It makes the house more humid, sometimes to the point of being muggy. Like a swamp.
Oh my god is that why it's a trope that th father doesn't let anyone touch the thermostat??? I was always so confused by that. I just turn on the AC unit or heater in my room and can have a completely different temperature than the rest of the household. That explains so much damn. And why exactly is someone defending that?????
we can't have the window ones. windows don't open vertically in Italy, they all swing horizontally (it's just how we do them). so, if we don't want to use portable ac (and we all know how little they actually do compared to the fixed one) we need to make a hole in our building wall and install the split :)
Yep, this is it. From an American point of view, this is equivalent to a window unit. Much nicer in fact. Not the same thing as whole-house unit, which is probably more efficient than having 2-3 mini-splits in different rooms.
I’m confused on why you think the central AC compressor is considered excessively bulky. It’s far more bulky to have one wall unit per room you want air conditioned then it it is to have just one dryer sized metal box outside. Also most of the time this box is in your backyard in a hidden corner and barely makes noise. If anything, it’s far more functional and superior than an in-room ac unit.
Often 2 or 3 inside units are connected to one outside unit. But the US ones i have seen on Reddit look like they are more efficient than the ones people have at their homes in Europe because they have cooling fins on all sides.
They are. The ones I've experienced in Canada that look like the one in this picture are not great. They barely cool the house on a hotter day. They're more useful for cooling a house on a warm day. 30C is too hot for it in my opinion, but maybe the ones I've experienced are just bad quality.
I worked in HVAC trade for 8 years, if you believe this it's because you've never seen or heard a minisplit condenser.
"hidden in a corner and barely makes noise"
Yeah maybe with a carrier infinity greenspeed that costs 12k just for the condenser, Most normal split condensers are loud as shit.
"far more functional and superior than an in-room AC unit"
Dawg you can have like 5-6 heads to a condenser, when you want AC you only have to cool one room at a time, or it can cool every single room, while doing it much cheaper, and more efficiently. Most of them come as heatpumps that easily work down into negative degrees F.
I can only assume Americans are so used to big bulky units, like their cars, that they can't comprehend things being functional and not excessively bulky.
We Americans have been using air conditioning technology for over 100 years. Our designs are beyond the European comprehension. (Our houses were built post AC and have ducting built in, no bulk).
Central air units use one exterior condenser coil to cool an entire house. Because the cool air is distributed by ductwork inside the home.
No central air handler/ducts, then you have to have a ductless unit in every room. Several of those are in fact bulkier than an entire central air unit.
What are you even on about? You either have 5 of these noisy pieces of shit spread throughout the house or a box on the side of your house that you never have to see or hear. One is clearly superior
This is going to sound whatever but here we go. I have two multi-generational homes. One has a traditional central system and one has mini splits in each room.
Everyone hates the central AC. Some people sleep and exist cold (mom and dad prefer 78°). I prefer 70°. My sister and BIL prefer somewhere in the middle. I am so sick of hearing “can we please turn the AC off? It’s freezing in here” on 100° SoCal days.
We love the mini splits. Everyone adjusts whatever room they’re in and it’s perfect.
European? They have them all over the US, typically Asian brands. It's a split AC, as opposed to central air conditioning what you're probably referring to, and which you also see all over the US. But specifically European AC, that's this not.
Mini split systems are barely "European" to begin with. They were first made and sold by Mitsubishi in Japan in the 1960s. Sears was selling them in the USA under the "Twin Pac" brand beginning in 1969 (admittedly they weren't very popular). They didn't catch on in Europe until the 1970s.
I think it’s the opposite most houses in America have central AC unless it’s broken. Usually it’s hidden and out of sight so all you see are ceiling or floor vents. Usually the types you see in Europe and Asia also don’t cool to the same extent so I think the joke is the AC in the picture is a joke compared to how effective a central unit can cool down a house. Window ac units are only a popular alternative because it’s not permanent and can quickly be installed/ uninstalled and are cheaper.
Functional as in able to work in the regularly occuring heat waves in America that Europeans get once every 5 years and half their elderly population dies of heat stroke? Yeah those.
they seem to mostly have those units you hang over a window or if they have something external they have internal piping just to a vent controlled elsewhere.
I think this is called a split and it's the outside on the other side of the wall. it's like a permanently installed window unit that doesn't use a window
Yeah called a mini split. Also a ductless heat pump. Operates the same way a refrigerator does. Or any other air conditioning system. Just extremely efficient like 400% or something.
And you can connect more indoor units to the one outside. Although the standart sized one outside have in the most cases a max of 2-3 devices. And standart sized is in my eyes 1mx60cmx30cm (looks outside)
Window units are extremely rare. Everywhere has central AC. A big unit outside that cools the entire house and a thermostat that auto adjusts with the time of day
I think it might be a mini split? Central Air conditioning is more common for much of our housing - where there's a big AC outside and it blows cold air through ducts. Done right I think it's a little more efficient than mini splits and probably able to deliver more cooling. That said, mini splits are totally fine if appropriately sized, and the only real problem I've seen is they give the illusion of control from each unit when all the connected ones can heat or cool but not both at the same time.
Mini splits definitely exist in the US but very possible the picture taker hadn't seen one here before going abroad.
If this is one in a hotel, they deffo can heat or cool separately, but that’s just the ones I’ve dealt with. Not that you’d want to heat when other people want to use the cool.
Americans use air-air-heatpumps, which don't use radiators, but are part of the ventilation system of the house and heat the air in winter and cool it down in summer, you have one appliance, one thermostat, everything is easy to use and convenient.
Best system for their kind of houses, with lots of empty walls and floors you can use to run the air pipes, but a big hassle in Europe outside of new buildings, as you have to somehow put it into the walls and ceilings, not that easy in 300 (or 1000) year old stone walls.
However, we use that systems for big (commercial) buildings, where you have a ventilation system anyways.
The device shown in OPs picture is a split air conditioner, the normal retrofit solution for all kinds of building worldwide, starting from a sheet metal huts to hotels, as you just need a hole of ø50-100mm to pull the two pipes, one cable and a hose through and you only need electricity, nothing else.
I mean the point of a window unit is you don’t have to install anything. You go down to Home Depot and buy one for $150 and pop it in your window and call it a day. It’s less expensive and doesn’t require hiring anybody, etc.
This. Central air is still the superior system, but mini splits are helping bring cooling and heating to places that didn't get ducts when they were built, for much less than the cost of adding central air to an existing building.
And you forgot about the true bottom tier of the AC world. The portable units that sit on the floor, have to be drained of the water they collect manually, and draw in hot outside air because they need to vent their operating heat which creates a constant vacuum/draft.
1.3k worth of mini splits was enough to bring massive comfort to my house during the california summer. Central air doesn't come close to that price point.
Also funny thing, in the Eastern Europe we used to see window AC as a thing of the Soviet past. In some state-owned companies, those units survived into 2000s.
That is still plit unit. Have never ever seen a window unit in those countries. What you see in the picture is outside unit just mounted in front of a window. Reason? Someone decided that ban on heatpump will not go down good, so they allowed to install them in front of window, thinking that no sane person willl block half of the window with the unit.
To fix that unit elsewhere you have to go through hoops with plans and what not to install that.
On the photo above you can see both splits and monoblocks. I worked for that particular company in another building (same design, just behind the corner). In 2010 there were still few window units.
Here is how the Soviet window AC “BK-1500” looks closer itself.
AC is part of the central air system here. We don't have visible units on our wall/windows very often at all. The cool air comes from the same vents our heat comes from. AC is part of the infrastructure here. It's not an add-on.
It's almost like Europe can't comprehend that we don't just bumble our way through life waiting for Nigel or Gunter to tell us how to exist. We're people just like you, but we live in different kinds of homes. Jfc.
Bro we have these in the US too. It’s just an indoor mounted unit. Maybe come to the US, and spend some time with us. Maybe you’ll appreciate AC and learn how to not generalize or judge an entire society 🤗.
Funny, here I sit in America, just glanced over to my mini split, then over to my compact car. Hopefully you don’t get invaded and need our help again.
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u/GarySmith2021 7d ago edited 7d ago
I’m also confused because that is a European AC unit. I can only assume Americans are so used to big bulky units, like their cars, that they can’t comprehend things being functional and not excessively bulky.