Air conditioning is just about essential today. However, that wasn’t always the case.
It’s hard to believe, but home central air conditioning is only a few decades old.
As a result, a number of older homes aren’t equipped for an air conditioning system. For a long time, it’s been too expensive for many homeowners to consider putting one in. Or, a new system won’t fit into the design of the home, because it wasn’t built with central air in mind.
For years, many people with older homes have relied on ceiling fans or window unit air conditioners. However, these aren’t nearly as powerful as more modern HVAC options. Also, in some cases, the older options are much more expensive to operate. Thankfully, there’s a way today to get the power of a central system without doing major work on your home. It is called ductless air conditioning, and it has a lot to offer especially in an older home.
Pittsburgh Ductless HVAC – How Does it Work?
Ductless air conditioning is an HVAC system that cools an entire house like central air. However, it doesn’t require ductwork and vents throughout the house. Instead, cool air travels through tubing and into units mounted on walls throughout the home.
Ductless Air Conditioning in an Older Home
Central air for homes wasn’t widely available until the 1970s. This means that homes built before that weren’t necessarily made to accommodate it. These include pre-war houses and those constructed when suburban housing exploded in the 50s and 60s. As a result, adding central air conditioning can be a considerable expense. If the home doesn’t have the right ductwork, it needs to be installed to run cold air. For this, we would need to design a duct system, and then build and install it.
Doing so can quickly run the bill up if your home isn’t designed for it. That doesn’t include the cost of the air conditioner itself. And, often the homes weren’t designed to accommodate large, bulky ducts. We would need lots of space in closets and along ceilings to run them. Large projects like this can be a problem in very old houses.
For many of these reasons, we highly recommend ductless air conditioning as a great option for older homes. A system like this is just as effective as a central unit. But, it takes a lot less work to install.
If you do not have ductwork in your home, contact Climatech today to learn how we can cool your home with ductless air conditioning!