Mini Split for a two-bedroom 950 square foot apartment

[iibgdi]

I'm located in the upper Midwest where we have fairly rough winters and pretty hot summers.

I know very little about these but I think I want to try this in my rental apartment. It is a free-standing structure. Basically it is a stick-built with metal sides and roof. Started out as a two-car garage that was converted to a efficiency apartment. We are gutting it entirely and adding on and turning it into a two-bedroom apartment.

I'm trying to figure out what my cost would be and how the mini split actually works.

I'm hoping to avoid buying two units but from what I've been able to gather so far you can have one mini split system with multiple zones.

I take that to mean you'd have one outside wall unit with a box in each bedroom and the living room.

Is that correct? Is that how it is considered multi-zoned? Or am I misunderstanding and I'll actually need a separate unit for each room with its own outside wall mount?


Again I apologize for using incorrect terminology. I'm simply trying to find the least expensive and most efficient way to heat and cool this two-bedroom apartment.

 

[Raisedonadeere]

You can have one inside unit that ducts to two or three rooms if they are all adjacent. I had thought that I would put a unit in ceiling of closet in a bed room that then access the adjacent through the wall with one duct, and through back of closet wall into a hallway and into the bedroom itself through the front closet wall. Three ducts just a foot or less long.

I have seen these available in several brands.

I didn't actually do this because when I installed a ceiling cassette unit in my living/dining/kitchen area the whole house stays cool or warm as long as I leave the doors open. With good insulation and air tight construction it seems you do not need tons of air moving around.

My house is 1800 sqft living area and I do have two units, the ceiling unit I mentioned and one in the master bedroom/bath area. Works better than any ducted HVAC I have ever been around. Master bed room is kept at its own temp, 66 at night. Living area and the other two bedrooms and bathroom stay at one temp all day and night. The house airtight and well insulated wall, ceiling and floor.

If ever the house needed to have closed bedroom doors, I would need to put in one of those mini ducted units to keep it cool enough as these two bed rooms are about two degrees warmer at night than the main living area and if doors were shut i am sure a lot warmer. I have just not needed it so far.

Good insulation and airtightness including floor render much less need for multiple sources of cooling and heating. Uninsulated concrete floor would require lots of air movement in every room during winter heating.

Mini splits give you the ability to incrementally trim out your system. Not so easy when you are having to rely on HVAC professionals but for a DIY situation they rock. In upper midwest you definitely should go with Hyper heat units, IMO. They rock.

 

[theoldwizard1]

I'm hoping to avoid buying two units but from what I've been able to gather so far you can have one mini split system with multiple zones.

I take that to mean you'd have one outside wall unit with a box in each bedroom and the living room.

Correct ! 3 indoor "air handlers" will add a lot to the cost.

Again I apologize for using incorrect terminology. I'm simply trying to find the least expensive and most efficient way to heat and cool this two-bedroom apartment.

Cheap to install or cheap to operate ? How important is comfort ?

Large apartment complex use something called a PTAC or a "packaged unit". Sort of a giant window A/C with heat. Easy to install. Expensive to operate (usually has electric resistance heat). The benefit for apartment complex is any maintenance person can swap one out/in in less than an hour. They always keep several on hand and just swap the whole assembly. When the run out of spares, they send them out to be repaired.

There are a few "inverter" window heat pumps on the market. If they use a "heat strip" they are expensive to operate in winter.

 

[motterpaul]

The new mini-splits are extremely efficient, IME. We have two separate 12000 BTU units for a 1500 sq ft house, but one unit alone "almost" can cool the whole space. I am sure one 18k unit would cool your whole space, especially if you insulate the walls and ceiling.

I had a similar structure, a "garage" with no inner wall drywall and an aluminum roof. We packed the walls & ceiling with insulation and put up drywall all the way around. That will completely insulate you and one unit should work very efficiently. If you can just add some air ducts in the walls, or leave the doors open when possible, you could probably get the air to the whole house.

 

[SALIV8]

I have mini splits for my 2 bdroom apartment. Love em.

Make sure placement is good. One in each bdrm is most likely a must then one more for main area or possibly 2 more for main area depending on layout.

They work best in an open style layout. Once u get compartmentalized its a bit more difficult to evenly heat/cool the place.