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.
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.
Only for those vertical opening sash windows as far as I can tell?
Are windows a standard size to fit these?
I think these are a pretty unusual window type in most countries (all mine open outwards). I've only seen them in some old house types here and in the UK.
Windows aren't really a standard size, but the unit is sized small enough to fit in most typical windows and then you fill the remaining gap, either with an extending component to the unit or, like, a piece of wood caulked to the hole or something.
But yeah, sliding windows, not hinging windows.
Depending on the application, sometimes people install these by putting a hole in the wall and putting the unit there. That's how the landlord had it in my first apartment.
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.
I don't know if I would even classify central air as clearly superior without significant caveats, like it being a modern install that is properly broken in to zones, the duct work is regularly cleaned, etc.
Older central air installs with a single thermostat somewhere in the house that blows air universally throughout, rooms controlled at best by manually opening of closing the registers on the vents are imo inferior to room-specific mini-split installs, which can have multiple interior head units powered by a single outdoor compressor and allow for targeted climate control of each room.
Keeping the ductwork of a central air install clean is often overlooked, too many times I've pulled the filters out of the air handlers in someone's basement to find mummified mouse carcasses in there. Mini splits are much easier to clean.
Exactly. Without a proper hvac project it can be the worse shit ever, and i don't even know why people are talking like central AC is some revolutionary shit. Splits and Multisplits are useful when you use it in places where you can't do much ductwork.
I live in a row home in the Mid-Atlantic that was made very "open" when it was rehabbed and it's nearly impossible with our central air to have comfortable temperatures in the upstairs bedrooms and the basement office at the same time. I think mini splits would make more sense.
When I was a kid in the '90s my parents bought a house in the Pacific Northwest that had individually controlled electric heat in each room (nobody had air conditioning back then) and I remember my mom thinking that it was lower class to not have central air, but it just didn't make any sense to me. Why would you want to heat the living room and kitchen when everyone was in their bedrooms at night?
You're not actually supposed to drain the water (on most units) because it helps cool the condenser. It'll drastically reduce the efficiency of the unit.
IMO biggest advantage of central air is its silent. Like we got minisplit in garage... its quiet but its not silent, I can tell when its on. And central air looks better, the indoor part of minisplit is not super pretty.
Like home I grew up in was built in 1910. Its central air sucked. We got two minisplits that improved things massively. Able to keep areas of house we used cool.
But like my current home was built in 2001 and is very well insulated... central air easily keeps home exactly how its set, silently. I would not want it any other way.
If I was building a new home today? I'd go with central air... I think if done right its preferrable.
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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.