Mini Splits
System Overview
Mini Split Systems also known as ductless Air Conditioning and Heating Systems are composed of 2 mayor components, one indoor and one outdoor. The indoor unit holds in-cased an evaporator coil that is used as a heat transferring device. The outdoor unit holds the compressor and a fan motor. Both indoor and out door units are connected by a set of copper lines that when installed, complete the refrigeration cycle. the outdoor units needs dedicated electrical power that has to be supplied by the maim panel or sub panel. All mini split units work with 120 or 240 volts. the outdoor ductless unit can sit on top of a concrete pad if the ground is unstable or it can sit directly on a solid surface such as concrete, tile, stone, etc.
The indoor ductless unit works with a remote control that allows the operation of Air Conditioning or Heating cycle depending on the capabilities of the unit. This same machine is powered directly from the outdoor unit. When the Air Conditioning is activated the indoor fan motor will automatically start to blow air at low speed and gradually increase as the outdoor condenser starts to deliver more refrigerant to the indoor unit. There is a drain line that sticks out of the back of the indoor unit that has to be routed to the outside of the house, building, or structure there it is mounted.
The indoor fan cam be manually adjusted from low, medium, to high speed, in general terms or it could be set to the automatic setting. When in auto mode the fan will be adjusted by the temperature sensors located arround the evaporator coil. As the evaporator coil decreases in temperature on a call for A/C the fan will increase in speed until it reaches its maximum operational speed. On the heat mode the indoor unit will deliver air from a low speed as a starting point to high speed as the evaporator coil increases in temperature. In most units there is a button on the remote control that generally is labeled by the word "MAX" this means that the units allows the highest speed to only be activated by this botton. The "MAX" botton is used when there is a need to reach the desired themperature quicker, as the the max setting goes in to function the unit will operate approximately for 20 minutes in this setting, after that it will resume it's original operation mode.
The out door unit copressor is located inside the unit and it has the property of delivering the refrigerant to the indoor unit. This compressor can run on refrigerant R-22 or R-410A. The outdoor condenser including the compressor is controlled by the indoor unit. As the demand for cooling or heating increases the copressor speed increases. Note that the compressor on the newer unit work with an inverter that transformed the AC current to DC. As a result the unit in general can perform more effiently. There is another mayor component inside the condenser and that is the condenser fan motor, this motor is controlled by a circuit board that is located in most cases in the upper section of the outdoor condenser underneight the outter cover or the unit. The circuit board controls the speed of the fan motor as the temperatures sensors arround the outdoor unit detect a change in temperature arround the compressor and condenser coil.
This type of Air Conditioning and Heating system can be very efficient compared to the central HVAC systems. A Mini Splilt systems can vary in effiency any where from 13 Seer to 24 Seer in most cases.