this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2024
229 points (92.3% liked)
Technology
59605 readers
3434 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
For anyone else not in the know, a mini split seems to be a standalone heating and cooling appliance.
Are they called something else in other places? Heat Pump Mini Splits are pretty common in the Americas and Europe.
I don't think they are called something else, but they aren't common in the Midwest US. Most households are using central heating and air conditioning. I've seen mini splits before in Europe, but didn't know that's what they were called
Yeah it's rather unfortunate that heat pumps aren't more common in the Midwest. As someone formerly from Michigan, I know it gets cold, but heat pumps can operate below 0 easily without aux heat nowadays and you can get gas or electric aux heat to supplement when you get below the operating temps of the heat pump.
Change is also hard for humans, so companies still throw in forced air systems that burn natural gas or propane.
They're also not common in my area (Rockies), and they would probably be a really good fit here. Instead, everyone has central heating and a big AC unit, with one one being on at a given time. But it doesn't get cold enough for a heat pump to be ineffective, yet we still separate them for some reason.
I think its just more that they aren't super common in parts of the US, especially colder climates. I've only seen one and that was parents who got it as a supplemental system.