Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill Bumface
I wish it wasn't so damn expensive to retrofit mini splits. If we had a mini split for each bedroom that's all we'd need. And they can actually be left off and just turn them on to blow on you at bedtime and use a fraction of the energy used by whole house AC.
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Yeah, they have a ridiculous markup in North America for some reason. In other parts of the world minisplits are cheaper than traditional systems. In Mexico, you can even buy lower end (but still decent) ones from WalMart for about $5-600 CAD. Even the higher end ones that we can get here are about half the price in most non-Western countries. I think they're still a niche thing here and they're marked up accordingly.
But of course, the install costs here are insane too, no matter how cheap you get the equipment. I'm fortunate enough to be good friends with an HVAC/R Technician so I was able to get the equipment (2 ducted units) at his company's cost, which is about half of retail. Other than the ducting (which I did), it took him about 4-5 hours with me helping to install 2 systems. But if I was paying retail, that probably would have been a $3K install on top of paying retail (about $12-13K) for the units. They'd be pretty hard to justify at full price, even if they are insanely efficient in coastal BC's climate.