Products / Mitsubishi Electric
Mitsubishi Electric systems, on the right side of the shop sign
Air-Tech is a Mitsubishi Electric Diamond Contractor, and the sign on the right of the Pasco gable marks the shop that installs them. The idea is simple. Instead of pushing all the air through one set of ducts, a system puts a small indoor unit in the room that needs it and connects it to an outdoor unit by a thin refrigerant line.
What follows is how the crew thinks about each piece. For the full picture of the work, see the ductless systems service.
Indoor units
The indoor unit decides how the system looks and where the air lands. Six types cover most houses, and picking between them is mostly about the room and what is behind its walls.
- Wall-mounted
- The familiar head high on a wall. It needs only a small hole for the refrigerant line, so it is the usual pick for a single bedroom, an office or a sunroom, and the easiest to add to a house that already has finished walls.
- Horizontal-ducted
- A slim unit that hides above a ceiling or below a floor and sends air through short runs of duct to a few grilles. It suits new construction and remodels where you want no visible equipment in the room.
- EZ FIT one-way ceiling cassette
- A shallow cassette that sits flush between ceiling joists and blows air in one direction. It works where a wall head would look wrong or the ceiling cavity is too tight for a larger cassette.
- Ceiling cassette and suspended
- A cassette spreads air on several sides from the middle of a ceiling, and a suspended unit hangs below it. Both fit open rooms, and neither needs any ductwork.
- Ducted air handler
- A larger cabinet that feeds a full duct system, installed upright or on its side. It is how a house with existing ducts can move from a gas furnace to a ductless-style heat pump without rebuilding the ductwork.
- Floor-mounted
- A unit that sits low on the wall like a baseboard heater. It fits rooms with little clear wall space up high, and a basement or a sunroom with big windows is a typical spot.
Outdoor units
Outdoor units come in three arrangements. A single-zone unit that only cools serves one room that runs hot. A single-zone unit that cools and heats keeps one room comfortable year round. A multi-zone unit runs several indoor heads from one condenser, which is how a whole house gets its own temperature in every room without a condenser for each one.
Where the condenser sits matters as much as which one it is. It needs clear airflow, a level pad, and a short, protected run for the line set to the indoor heads. If a house already has an air handler waiting on a cooling upgrade, see the air handler service.
Controls
Four kinds of control are available for these systems: a wired wall controller, a wireless wall controller, a handheld remote and a smartphone app. The wall controllers are the ones that stay put and can run more than one indoor unit at once. The handheld is what most people reach for on the couch, and the app lets you change the temperature from wherever you are.
Controls also decide how a house behaves as zones. Rooms that share a control move together, and rooms with their own hold their own settings. To talk through how to split up a home, read the zone control service.
Ask for a free consultation
Air-Tech offers a free consultation on ductless systems. Call the shop and describe the room, or send the details and the office will get back to you during business hours.