In Southern California, people have different concerns when it comes to heating a home during the winter than elsewhere in the country where the temperature takes much steeper drops. Although homeowners will need to have a heating system to manage to cooler days and occasionally cold nights, the main concern in Southern California is energy efficiency: the heater in your home only runs periodically, so you want to make sure that it doesn’t cost you a fortune whenever it does come on.
Energy Efficiency and the Ductless Heating System
This is one of the reasons that a ductless heating system (a.k.a. ductless mini split) is often a good idea for a home. Ductless mini splits are types of heat pumps, and heat pumps have high energy efficiency when in heating mode. The reason for this is that they only consume electricity for the purpose of moving heat from one place to another. This requires far less electrical power than using heating elements to warm up the air to create heat, as in an electric furnace.
On top of this savings—which is what you’d receive from any heat pump—ductless heating systems do not suffer from heat loss through ductwork. In a standard heater that uses a ventilation system of air ducts, a good percentage of the heat moving through the ducts escapes through the ducts walls, or through small air leaks. Poor insulation along ducts (common in California homes) only increases this loss. Obviously, a ductless heating system doesn’t experience any of this! The smaller motors used for the air handlers in ductless systems are also more energy efficient than those in standard central heaters, so add that onto the already extensive energy savings.
Also keep in mind that, like any other heat pump, a ductless system also works as an air conditioner when needed: this heating installation will serve you the whole year!
With all that said, ductless heating is more suited to some home layouts than others. Talk to professional installers about a ductless mini split heat pump before making a choice.
Kilowatt Heating, Air Conditioning and Electrical provides complete service for ductless systems in Studio City, CA.