Should You Get a Ductless Cooling System?

Date: May 1, 2023

Ductless mini-splits are versatile and energy efficient.

How old is your Boston-area home? If it was built before central air conditioning became common in the 1960s, it might not have ductwork. This is especially true if it’s heated with a hot water system (boiler).

At Cubby Oil & Energy, we talk to lots of homeowners who live in houses without ducts and mistakenly believe that they are stuck with window A/C units. This is a shame because, to be blunt, window units are awful. They don’t cool large areas effectively; they’re loud; they leak cool air through gaps in the window, and their efficiency is subpar at best. Plus, you lose the view from your window!

And homeowners relying on window A/C’s face an aggravating choice every year: Do you leave them in and risk heat loss all winter or go through the arduous process of hoisting them into and out of storage?

Are those enough good reasons to look for a better, more efficient, longer-term cooling system? We have a solution that doesn’t require any ductwork in your home — ductless mini-splits.

What are ductless mini-splits?

Ductless systems are composed of two components: indoor units that cool individual parts of your home and an outdoor compressor that they connect to through thin pipes in your wall. The indoor units pull in the warm air from your rooms, then cool it and return it.

What are the benefits of a ductless cooling system?

There are a plethora of advantages to installing ductless mini-splits in your home. Pardon us if this sounds like a love letter, but we can’t help singing the praises of these fantastic systems:

• Zoned cooling. Unlike central A/C systems, you can keep different rooms in your home at different temperatures. This saves you money by not cooling rooms you aren’t in!
• No duct losses. According to the Department of Energy, more than 30 percent of a home’s A/C-related energy consumption is attributable to air escaping through leaky ducts. This isn’t an issue with mini-splits.
• Easy installation. Only drilling is needed to install mini-splits, so you don’t need to worry about days of disruption for your home’s cooling installation.
• Versatile placement. The indoor units of a mini-split can go just about anywhere in your home. We’ll position them out of sight and in locations where they cover the largest cooling area. This versatility is also great for cooling individual rooms that a central A/C doesn’t reach, including guest rooms, attics, garages, basements and newly constructed additions.
• Long service life. A mini-split system that gets regular service can last more than 20 years — way longer than central A/C equipment.
• Supplemental heat. These products also provide heating during the fall and early winter.

Cubby Oil & Energy is a Mitsubishi Diamond Preferred Contractor!

We install and service Mitsubishi Electric ductless mini-split systems, some of the top-rated ductless cooling products on the market. Since we are Diamond Preferred Contractors, any Mitsubishi system we install will have a 10-year parts and 10-year compressor warranty!

Don’t suffer through a sweltering summer with ineffective window A/C’s. Contact the Cubby team today to find a top-of-the-line ductless cooling option.