When we first got married, my husband and I bought a very small house on a large piece of property.
We really liked the location and didn’t mind the limited square footage of the home.
We didn’t have many possessions at the time, and it was just the two of us. The smaller house was very easy to clean and maintain. Projects such as replacing the roof and windows wasn’t overly expensive. Our heating and cooling bills costs were very little. Five years later, we had added three kids, a dog and a parrot to our family. The house was all of a sudden cramped. It was time to put on an addition. One of our main concerns was how to handle temperature control in the new space. We considered extending the existing ductwork and utilizing our current furnace and air conditioner. However, we didn’t feel the heating and cooling systems could handle the bigger workload. We were also reluctant to sacrifice so much space and expense to a duct system. I did some research into compact heating and cooling units and discovered ductless mini-splits. This type of system starts with an outdoor air compressor that then links to separate indoor air handlers mounted in the different rooms. Each of the indoor units includes an independent thermostat that allows zone control. The installation process is not difficult or invasive and requires little more than a three-inch hole in an exterior wall. We hired an HVAC contractor to handle the installation, and the system was up and running in a single afternoon. It provides both heating and cooling capacity, operates quietly and is wonderfully energy efficient.