For comparison, I just bought a house here in Japan. Installed 6 minisplit heat pumps across various rooms in the house. All together it cost me 750,000 yen ($5,000) for the hardware and 90,000 yen ($600) for the install.
Japan is where early air-source heat pumps first achieved market success, so it's unsurprising that they are much cheaper to install there, because of the relatively large number of installer options.
In the US, they are struggling to break out of the eco-luxury product niche (where they have been stuck for a long time).
Compared to a conventional A/C compressor (which they replace), heat pump compressors are much smaller, quieter, and less ugly.
As for the indoor units, they can either be the "ugly" ones (the indoor head units visible on the wall), recessed "cassettes", or they can use traditional A/C air handlers in a utility room to distribute conditioned air via existing duct-runs and registers.
There are also companies like Quilt that are making heat pump systems with much more attractive indoor wall units.
I was curious about sound for both the indoor and outdoor pieces. The outside condenser for my current AC is very loud. Are the heat pump units quieter, and if so, why?
Better variable frequency drives for both fans and compressor is a big part of it (see other comments about being less prone to short-cycling).
This isn't exactly new or unique to heat pumps (and some older heat pumps lack both), but as the technology has gotten cheaper and more reliable, coupled with the drive for better efficiency, it has become commonplace.
Speaking as an apartment dweller, my new apartment's ductless setup is much quieter (inside) than my old apartment's blower. At the old place, the fan was either on or off and must have added another 10 or 20 db of noise forcing you to always keep the TV remote nearby in case the fan turned on or off. It's very convenient that I can control my ductless unit's fan speed with a remote.
Can you do the installation yourself? In my country i have to make a HVAC technician come to check the installation and sign a paper before i can start mine (200€ for a 15 minutes job, but it's less than the 2-4k it would cost to not do it myself)
[edit] i say that because my hardware is 2.5k euros, so ~3k¯dollars, so we probably have the same high end stuff, and i guarantee you it's not hard to install, and it can be quite fast if you have help from your SO.
Depends on where you live. Someone that has the tools can do it themselves and then shut the fuck up, which is how I suspect most of them in America get installed. Code/planning enforcement commonly surveils residences via satellite or air images but they're not noticing a mini split installed.
Newer units (not all) in the US come pre-charged up to a certain size of lineset. Manufacturers can sell you a whole unit with a charge. The rest is easy to source locally though I haven't tried to get nitrogen myself.
Of course you have exactly one chance with your install this way until you have to call someone.
Central air system with indoor blower & outdoor condenser generally don't come with pre-charged lines so self-install without certification isn't really an option in US.
I got my EPA 608 universal for free after 2 night of cramming and an online proctored test. Skillcat, I think they charge like $50 if you want a printed card, worth it to me because I wanted to be able to walk into supply houses and buy refrigerant.
I almost did this after I helped a friend install a mini-split.
Having just installed a mini-split in my office shed with a pre/charged unit. I told him it was easy and helped him. We ended up needing to buy an extra long line set to make the distance work, which needed more refrigerant.
I called 15 different places and finally found one that could come out and charge the line for under $350. Which was hard to stomach with the whole unit costing only $750 from Amazon.
Getting the 608 is mostly rote memorization and the only thing required at the federal level. On the state level if you want a trade license that generally takes 4 years, but where I live residential owner-builder doesn't need it.
Me too, except I got it in the SkillCat free trial. Did it while rocking my then baby over a few weeks. Super easy for anyone that is a “good” test taker and has high school level reading
It's not just certification/permitting. The manufacturers often state that the unit must be verified to be installed by a qualified technian or the warranty is void.
Around here anyway, I was getting quotes of 20k for the install & equipment of a central air handler and the outdoor unit.
I'd be dead before the thing paid for itself in electricity cost savings. $20,000 ÷ (~90yrslife - 40yrsold) = $400 / year of neccesary savings to break-even as my casket is lowered into the ground.
Most don't have a payback if the cost of electricity is too high. Let's make them lower cost up front and lower running costs so it's a no brainer when replacement is due.
This is similar to just about everything mechanical (e.g. auto maintenance). The labor is always the biggest fraction of the cost, not the parts. You always have the option to DIY.
Another person living in Japan. Sounds about right. A unit from a good brand (daikin, mitsubishi) costs ~$800? More or less depending on the room size. We had them installed when we built the house, installation price included. Two are enough to keep our house cool or warm in any season (it's a well insulated house). We have another in the guest room, use it only for when guests stay.
Our renovation company had rip-off pricing on years-old models, so we just asked a few electronics stores for quotes. First looked up the cheapest online options as baseline pricing, and then used the in-store sale deals to stay at the same total price but get the units in the bigger rooms upgraded to fancier/higher grade options.
Mini-splits these days are available as multi-head (I think that’s the term) units, where a single outside unit can supply 2,4, or 6 units individually and independently.
They’re remarkable, and I would go for a mini-split system over a central unit 100 times out of 100.
> where a single outside unit can supply 2,4, or 6 units individually and independently
In my current home, I have two "heads" attached to a single outside unit, but they cannot operate independently beyond setting different fan speeds or closing the vent really. If one of the mini-splits is set to heat and the other switches to cooling, they will booth start cooling, or vice versa, the head units just blindly blow air over what ever is being pumped through the line and the last unit to send a command to switch mode "wins".
Maybe there are clever heat pumps that truly allow fully independent control of the head unit when connected to multiple heads, but given the flow of refrigerant has to reverse direction completely when switching between heating and cooling, I don't see how they can operate fully independently when they are sharing the same refrigerant lines.
There is only one reversing valve inside the outside unit for all the head units connected to one outside unit in my experience, but would love to see examples of systems that do permit this if they exist.
An extra clever system would include every temperature controlled appliance in the house. Heat could be exchanged between the hvac, water heater, refrigerator, and oven.
When the oven is done cooking it can dump heat into the water heater (and or furnace in the winter). The fridge and HVAC could dump heat into the water heater before pumping it outside in the summer.
By “independently” I meant that one room could be heating/cooling while other rooms aren’t doing anything at all. Or one room could be warmer/cooler than another.
As opposed to central unit’s all-or-nothing approach.
It's units in 6 different rooms (3 bed, office, living, dining) so 6 sets of units.
After reading some other comments I realize one vital detail is that they were installed in a renovated house that already had suitable holes to the outside and power outlets where the units were going, so the install job was just mounting the units, pulling the tubing and gassing it, no cutting things up or doing electrical work.
The price would at least double if we needed all the holes cut open, and I have no idea what the electrical work would cost.
It’s very normal here in Portugal. If you looked carefully and weren’t picky about the brands, you could have 6 mini-splits installed for $3000 all-in.
I would expect that installing six is maybe twice as expensive as installing one. All the overhead of scheduling the technician, traveling to the location, getting the tools out, etc stay the same. Installing six is vastly more efficient and that should be reflected in the price
