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Comment by nemo44x | Hacker News Reader

I have both HVAC and a ducted heatpump for one part of the home. The biggest issue with the heatpump is that in the climate I live in there are times of year where you may have the heat on in the morning and the AC in the afternoon. Or you may leave and when you return you want to change the temperature. A furnace and an AC can do this rapidly. A heatpump takes time. It's more of a trickle of climatized air than a blast of it.

Also, I'd never want a ductless system as they look awful in a room.

They are the future though. Especially as new regulations go into effect by 2035. Sadly, many American manufactures haven't taken it seriously and are far behind the Asian companies like Daikin.

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If you have the heat on in the morning and AC in the afternoon, your home is horribly under-insulated (or you are trying to keep in way too small a temperature range).

Old homes tend to not have any insulation. Parts of my house have modern insulation due to renovations/additions but other parts not so much. I wouldn't swap out the original windows and glass on the facade, for instance. And insulating it would probably be a destructive action as you need proper vapor barriers for insulation to not rot your home.

There are ceiling cassettes for mini-split systems that aren't nearly as much of an eyesore as the wall mount ones are.

Mini split systems can be used with ducts. All big venders sell heads which are specifically made to be connected to ducts. That way you get the best of both worlds and its also easy to retrofit to an existing (ducted) house.

This is a little known fact outside of the HVAC trades as everyone associates mini-split systems with the infamous wall-mounted indoor unit. I bought this LG unit[0] which I used some duct-foam board to build an adapter for and fanned out ductwork for that zone. People are amazed when I tell them this is a ducted mini split.

[0]: https://www.supplyhouse.com/LG-LDN127HV4-12000-BTU-Multi-F-C...

Mine take maybe 2 minutes to switch from heating to cooling, or cooling to heating.

I’m saying the time it takes to change the temperature in the home, not the time to switch function.

I use a thermostat that can switch modes automatically to keep temps within a certain defined range. So I think that's why it's not a problem for me.

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