If correctly sized and still capable of efficient performance, your central heating and cooling system should create a uniform temperature throughout your home. With just one thermostat governing HVAC operations, your furnace, heat pump, or air conditioner will maintain the same conditions in every room. But it’s not uncommon for homes with central HVAC to have hot and cold spots.
Areas of the building that always feel warmer or cooler than others may have different needs. Fortunately, you can correct hot and cold spots with a ductless mini-split system. Not only are they great for whole-house climate control, but mini-splits can also supplement central HVACs.
What Causes Hot and Cold Spots?
When sizing heating and cooling systems, HVAC technicians use the Manual J load calculation. This calculation accounts for:
- Insulation amounts
- Household sizes
- Home layouts
- Window sizes and types
- Ceiling heights
It uses numerous factors to determine the correct heating and cooling capacities for total service areas. If you make modifications to your home by adding or taking away insulation, replacing your windows, or making other changes, your needs for heating and cooling capacity will also change.
When HVAC systems are too large or small for their service areas, homes have hot and cold spots. Other factors that can create hot and cold spots include having multiple high-use, high-humidity areas and extreme solar heat gains. Sometimes, the basic physics of homes don’t allow for uniform heating and cooling. Rooms that are closer to attics, where heat rises, are always a bit warmer. Rooms near drafty basements are always a bit cooler.
How Can Ductless Mini-Split Systems Help?
Ductless mini-split systems provide zoned climate control. They have air handlers in each service area or room. If you have an area that’s prone to hot or cold spots, your technician will install an air handler here. With its own thermostat, this air handler will provide location-specific climate control. You can use it for additional heating or cooling as needed.
A single mini-split system can support up to eight air handlers at once. You can use a mini-split to address temperature differences in multiple spaces rather than just one.
Directional Airflow
A mini-split’s air handlers service much smaller spaces than the air handlers for central HVAC systems. As a result, they provide more concentrated streams of heated and cooled air. You can refine these streams to precisely target hot and cold spots by adjusting air handlers’ louvres.
Position louvres upward or outward to optimize the flow of cooled air. This will combat the natural sinking of cold air. Position louvres downward to combat the effects of rising heat.
Advanced Inverter Technologies
Mini-split systems leverage advanced inverter technologies. Rather than running full-blast all the time, they can vary their motor speeds according to real-time heating and cooling requirements. This allows them to address hot and cold spots without wasting energy.
Dry Mode Settings
Humid air feels much hotter than dry air. This is why rooms near busy bathrooms, utility rooms, and kitchens often feel much warmer than other spaces. You can use a mini-split’s “Dry Mode” setting for zoned humidity extraction at any time of year. Rather than cooling your indoor air, your mini-split will remove excess moisture to create cooler-feeling conditions.
Mini-splits are an increasingly popular choice for homes that lack central HVAC ducting. But they’re also effective for correcting hot and cold spots in homes that already have central heating and cooling. If you live in North Carolina and need ductless mini split services, make your first call to Blaze Air.