I live in a very old neighborhood; my house was built in 1893, which is the case for most of the homes around us. It’s a stretch of about 20 blocks and its very charming, lots of trees and character.
You can imagine that a lot of these homes have no duct work, it just wasn’t done and as the technology became available, running duct work wasn’t an option for most people because it eliminated some square footage and changed the beautiful interior design of the home. Most homes are heated with a boiler that creates hot water and the water runs through radiators throughout the house.
I’ve had lots of opportunity to talk to people in my neighborhood about getting that desired air conditioning without running duct work. Of course the biggest opposition I get is the same as running the duct work. “I don’t want to ruin the look of my interior with a wall hung air handler to distribute the cold air. I have this beautiful crown molding and I just couldn’t live with the look.”
For those folks with this scenario or for anyone that just doesn’t want to see that indoor evaporator hanging on the wall, Daikin has developed a product called the “Slim duct built in.”
What the product allows you to do is install an air handler in the attic or the top of a closet and put a small amount of duct work on it. Sometimes in newer construction, these units are installed and a bulk head is build around it. What you end up seeing are a couple of grills in the ceiling or wall or closet, as the case may be, and yet, you get the same great air conditioning and heating benefits as a regular ductless air conditioner.
This example of “ducted ductless” was put to use by an installing contractor in Niagara Falls Ontario. The building was an old stone farmhouse that had been converted to a bed and breakfast. There were many rooms that needed cooling and humidification and the standard wall mounted evaporators just didn’t suit the interior design. The big benefit that the bed and breakfast got was being able to run two small duct runs off of one air handler and offering cooling and heating to several spaces with just one air handler. Daikin air handlers can have up to three separate ducts running off of one unit.
The finished product
The bed and breakfast gets rave reviews for the invisible cooling and heating and the interior design was never compromised. I have a couple of examples below of what the indoor unit looks like during construction showing three duct runs coming off of it and some examples of what it can look like when its finished.
Stay tuned to learn about keeping happy neighbors next week!
If you are interested to get more tips about heating and cooling systems, visit our Article directory page for more.
Tom Keough
Vice President
