Mini Split Installation in Rockland, ME
A new system here will heat from September through May and cool from July through July every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Knox County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Rockland asks a mini-split to heat nine months of the year
Winter nights here average 16°F from December through February, and homes need heat from September through May. That is nine months of the year spent pulling heat out of cold air, against one month, July, when it runs the other way. A unit going in now has to hold its heat output on those cold nights, not just perform well in mild weather.
More than half the homes in this area heat with fuel oil, so a mini-split installed here is often taking on a job the old system never had to do. Any new mini-split has to meet the federal minimum of 14.3 SEER2 for cooling and 7.5 HSPF2 for heating, but with cooling asked of it one month a year and heat nine, how it performs in the cold matters more than the label.
- 9 months
- September through May, your system heats
- 1 months
- July through July, it cools
- 16°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 74°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
- Is a mini split worth it?
- For most homes here, yes, especially if the current heat is fuel oil. A mini split moves heat instead of burning fuel to make it, so it costs less to run per degree of warmth than an oil furnace. Fuel oil is the main heat source for over half the homes here, so that difference matters over a nine month heating season. The one thing to check is how the unit performs at 16°F, since that is the average low here from December through February. Ask the contractor for a cold-climate model and for its rated heat output at low temperatures, not just its standard rating.
- How many rooms can a mini split cover?
- A single outdoor unit can run one indoor head or several. Each indoor head heats and cools the room it is mounted in. A one-to-one system, one outdoor unit paired with one indoor head, works well for an addition or a single problem room. A multi-zone system with several indoor heads can cover a whole floor or a handful of rooms, each with its own thermostat. How many zones a house needs depends on the layout, so a contractor will walk the rooms and size it from there.
- Can a mini split heat a whole house?
- It can, if it is sized and placed for that. A multi-zone mini split with enough indoor heads, one per room or open area, can carry the full heating load of a house through a winter like this one, where heat is needed September through May. The cold-climate models built for this are rated to keep producing heat down into subzero temperatures, which matters here given the 16°F average winter low. Whether it should be the only heat source or work alongside the existing system is a sizing question a contractor needs to answer after looking at the house.