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ravmd

A/C unit for 2nd floor of A-Frame house

ravmd
12 years ago

We just got a 2nd home on the eastern shore of Maryland.

It is A-frame style with an open loft and bedroom upstairs. There was a supplemental heat/ac unit in the wall but it is not operating. We had someone look at it and said it is not worth repairing (2001/ freon style) and they are recommending a Fujitsu 1.5 ton ductless system on the wall above our bed at a cost of "high $3000s) . Ouch!

For one this seems like a lot of money to cool a fairly small space(maybe 400 sf tops) and to have an eyesore of a unit above our bed! AND in order to cool the open loft area outside of the bedroom, we have to leave the doors open! After questioning this , we were told we could put in a vent in the transom area above the doors we just added.

There has got to be a better way I would think! I realize cooling (and removing hot air) from the lofted high ceilings is difficult but....

please tell me there is a better and cheaper way!

The bed is centered below this window. They want to mount the new unit high on this wall:

As you come up the steps, the guest/daybed is straight ahead (you can see the old A/c heating unit) , turn right and the new doors leading into bedroom were installed.

We just added these doors to separate the open loft area from the bedroom. we will occasionally use the loft area for extra guest /kid sleeping

Comments (3)

  • ionized_gw
    12 years ago

    First, if you go minisplit, don't put it right above the bed. When it is in a low cooling mode, the fan is barely pushing air and cold air will just cascade down on your head. In heating mode, you want pretty fast blower speed blowing straight down. You get the picture? I almost located minisplits right above the head of the bed and changed my mind. I am glad that I rethought it.

    There are lots of ways to do minisplits. There are some floor-mounted units. This probably won't work in your situation, but you can get units that can be ducted with short ducts to two adjacent rooms. There are ceiling cassettes as well.

    Minisplits work great. They dehumidify well and that will certainly help on the MD shore. Cheaper alternatives? How about window units? Seriously, give a better picture of that nature of what was shouldering the job and tell us if it worked well.

  • ravmd
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Good to know about not positioning it above the bed. When he looked at where the old unit was , he said it was too low and it would be better if we could put the ductless unit higher on the wall. maybe since it is such a high ceiling?

    Didn't understand the last sentence. But we are getting another.
    estimate/opinion this weekend.

    Would tying this room into the existing unit be worth considering? or it that too difficult after the fact?
    The 1st floor is 1044 sf, 2nd floor is 270, but then there is the lofted ceiling space above the 1st fl family room.
    The units are 3 Tons and 66,000 btu that we have now.

  • ionized_gw
    12 years ago

    Last sentence:
    1) Minisplits control humidity well when the temperatures are not high, but high enough to want a little cooling and dehumidification. A lot of AC systems make a lot of cool, humid air when cycling on and off.
    2) What kind of cooling did you have up there before and how well did it work? I can't see anything in your picture.

    Re. your last post: Cooling works better if placed high on the wall. Heating works better placed low. In a mixed heating and cooling environment any were is a compromise,

    I am not an HVAC pro so I won't answer your last question authoritatively. The answer will probably be that no one can tell without making detailed observations and calculations. In addition to that, you will have to have some way of adjusting heating and cooling seasonally for a single system to serve a loft like that. With just one set of conditions, it will either be too hot in the summer or too hot in the winter.

    Check out the possible mini split arrangements on the Toshiba, Mitsubishi and Sanyo web sites.