The Historic District

The house we're interested in has steam boiler and radiators. If they're working well, I'd like to leave them. But I'm not the kind of person who can live without air conditioning. What have other's done?

Ductless mini-splits.

http://theoldvictorian.com/2015/03/28/a ... nagezones/

What kind of costs for a 2000 sq ft two story? Do you have to install a unit in each room? Not very attractive, or I should say rather distractive.

Mellydramatic wrote:What kind of costs for a 2000 sq ft two story?

That's going to depend on the layout and such. I'd get a good A/C guy there to give you a recommendation.

The ones we are putting in will end up costing about $1500 per area...we are putting in high-end very efficient stuff...you can do it for less if you are in a lighter A/C load area and go for less efficiency.

I went with high velocity mini-ducts (Unico) that were fished through the walls and celings. Visually, it's pretty minimal - just round outlets about the size of a CD. You can see two of them in this picture. You can also paint them to match the ceiling,which I have not done:



Our place is only about 100 SF bigger then yours, we went with a single zone, and I think it cost $8,000 or $10,000 six years ago in the metro NYC area. There is an air handler in the attic and a condenser outside. Otherwise, those outlets are the only visible sign that we have AC.

Chris

Thanks Chris! That's nearly invisible. Did you lose space with running vents?

Take a look at the new High Velocity systems. The ducts are 2", which allows it to be housed inside the walls of our older homes. http://spacepak.com/home.asp

Mellydramatic wrote:Thanks Chris! That's nearly invisible. Did you lose space with running vents?

Not really. In the original parts of the house we fished them through the walls and ceiling, so no space lost. We did have to cut holes periodically, but those were patched up after the ducts were run.
In the addition, which we were building at the time, they just fit easily into the wall before we drywalled.

The vents can also be floor vents as well (though you would probobly want to add a second, basement air handler for more money). This would mean, then, that you could drop the 2nd floor ducts from the attic and the 1st floor from the basement, drastically reducing the wall fishing.

As I said, we used Unico. Sash Guy mentions SpacePac, who have an identical product. Either way, we've been very happy with it.

Chris

Mellydramatic wrote:The house we're interested in has steam boiler and radiators. If they're working well, I'd like to leave them. But I'm not the kind of person who can live without air conditioning. What have other's done?

This is such a tough question ... I have HVAC, what came with the house. It is so problematic to retrofit it into an uninsulated house with no room for ducts in the conditioned space. So many sacrifices to be made. As much as I hate noisy, window hogging window units, they were cheaper to run and much more effective than the HVAC in uninsulated old houses. Same for gas space heaters.

kelletim wrote:

Mellydramatic wrote:The house we're interested in has steam boiler and radiators. If they're working well, I'd like to leave them. But I'm not the kind of person who can live without air conditioning. What have other's done?

This is such a tough question ... I have HVAC, what came with the house. It is so problematic to retrofit it into an uninsulated house with no room for ducts in the conditioned space. So many sacrifices to be made. As much as I hate noisy, window hogging window units, they were cheaper to run and much more effective than the HVAC in uninsulated old houses. Same for gas space heaters.

Window units are certainly cheaper & easier to install. I don't know about cheaper to run if you are talking about cooling an entire house.

I haven't really considered AC in my old stone farmhouse for all the reasons cited before. If I had to have AC & could afford it, I would go for a Unico system again for the reasons given above. As it is I love my big attic fan and one box fan in the bedroom which makes sleeping fairly comfortable most nights. I do have a small window unit if things get really nasty.

Neighbors have a 1950s ranch & they ripped out their entire circulated hot water baseboard system this spring in favor of a heat pump. They improved their attic insulation & the house is very comfortable this summer. I reserve judgement for the winter.

I was the beneficiary of two nearly new window AC units!