Video /
Apr 8, 2020

How to Use a Ductless Mini-Split Heat Pump as an HVAC System

A builder shares his tips for heating small spaces with a ductless, mini-split heat pump

Mark Donovan from Home Addition Plus explains how a ductless mini-split heat pump system works and the benefits of using one in a house.

When Donovan wanted to heat his garage due to the cold New Hampshire winters, the home builder and remodeler installed a Fujitsu Ductless Mini-Split Heat Pump. 

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“[By] installing one of these topless mini heat pump systems, I'm able to now heat my garage during those long winters,” Donovan says. “But even during this summer time, I also have the advantage of using this type of system as an air conditioning unit.”

Watch the video to learn more about using a heat pump system as an HVAC option. 

Transcript

Hi folks, Mark Donovan here from Home Edition Plus, and I wanted to show you what I had installed this ball here in my house in central New Hampshire. It's a ductless mini heater; you can see it right up above my head. And that's the evaporator unit of it. I will show you the compressor condensing you in the outside in a minute, and why I had this installed was that we have long cold winter months here in northern New England, central New Hampshire, and really wanted to be able to utilize my garage for in the these winter months and installing one of these topless mini heat pump systems, I'm able to now heat my garage during those long winters.But even during this summer time, I also have the advantage of using this type of system as an air conditioning unit. 

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Parts of a ductless mini-split heat pump system

So let me show you the key components of this system, and then we'll talk about some of the advantages of it. So on the outside of the house, this is the condenser compressor unit. And as you can see, we have it mounted so it basically attaches to the side of the house. It’s not sitting on the ground though you can get them assembled, so they stand on stands but I like it so that it attaches to the side of the house. So that it's off the ground away from any snow that we get, and other than that you know you've got this ductwork piece that goes up the side of the house and goes into a three-inch hole that feeds the evaporator on the inside of the garage, and that's it for ductwork. And basically what's going on in this pipe or this was duct if you will is a couple refrigerant tubes, a drain tube and some electrical wiring between the condenser compressor unit and the evaporator inside.

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See the set up

Let me show you the inside of the house. Here we have the evaporator portion of the mini-split system again. That ductwork that you saw going up the side of the house in the back of the house that flows from the kinetic oppressor unit up to this evaporator, which basically allows those tubes, the refrigerant, the electrical wiring and a drain pipe to basically connect the two together. And this unit here is what really blows out the heat or the cooling depending how you're using the system, and the last component that makes up this ductless mini controller as you can see here it's fun. The nice thing about this is that you just hit the start stop. I have it set for 76 degrees here at the moment, and that's all we need to do to get the heat running. I've got it for high fan configuration you can have it low medium, or on auto. There's an economy mode, but right now I've set up for heat mode and what will happen is the compressor and condenser on the outside will take a couple minutes to kind of warm up and get going kind of at a very slow level.

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See the full transcript here.