Why can I not keep a constant temperature in my house? We hear that question a lot. The answers are plentiful but not always easy to determine.
Among the many reasons for hot and cold spots are improperly sized equipment and/or ductwork. Depending on the size and configuration of the home, there can be varying heat loads due to:
- – passive heat caused by a room facing the sun
- – an excessive northerly wind
- – distance of the room from the air handling unit, etc.
A large number of windows and insufficient wall or roof insulation are other reasons why maintaining a constant temperature are a challenge. Yet another potential cause is excessive duct leakage. The average duct system leaks 30-40% of its air according to the Dept of Energy. Older systems can send as much as half of the air generated by the air handling fan into the ceiling or attic space causing comfort issues and wasting a lot of energy.
What are the solutions? If you’re dealing with an entire house with comfort issues, you may need to start from scratch and the expense can be fairly high. If it’s only 1 or 2 rooms that are hard to maintain, the simplest and most economical solution is a Mitsubishi ductless system.
My wife and I recently built a home in State College. Our development did not have natural gas and I WILL NEVER use home heating oil. That left a couple options. The first was a traditional heat pump with either electric or propane supplemental heat. The second was geothermal, which can be quite expensive, especially now since the tax incentives are gone. Both of these were legitimate options but lacked the ability for multiple zones in the home. As “empty-nesters” we knew much of the home would be unoccupied and the opportunity to modify temperatures when rooms were not in use would be a major energy saver. While ducted, zoning systems exist, they can be very temperamental when used with geothermal and are not as reliable as we would like.
Mitsubishi Electric MVZ Air Handling Unit with air cleaner, humidifier and UV light, 2 outdoor, hyper-heat units and an indoor wall unit.
Our answer? A Mitsubishi Electric zoned-comfort system. In our case, this included the use of a ducted Mitsubishi air handling unit for our large “Great Room” and 9 ductless wall units in all the perimeter rooms and the basement. The system was designed by Rick Morris of Goodco Mechanical and expertly installed by our residential crew managed by Mike Lynn. We have been thrilled with the performance of the system and the overall flexibility. In addition, we added remote control of 2 of the wall units (master bedroom & basement) via the Kumo Cloud. In 2016, Goodco received the Mitsubishi Electric Innovative Design Award for their work on the Good home. For additional details of the system, check out the Case Study from our website. http://goodcoinc.com/residential/thistlewood/
So how does this relate to you? Whether you’re building a new home, replacing an entire ducted or non-ducted system or just attempting to make one or two rooms more comfortable, Mitsubishi Electric zoned-comfort systems are the answer. As the only Mitsubishi Electric Diamond Elite Contractor in Central Pa with over 1200 systems installed, Goodco is the right company to make your home comfortable.