Question: Hello, Robert. I don’t know how many years I’ve read your articles, but I know it’s a lot. What a great service, thank you for helping. We’ve used your advice on so many do-it-yourself projects at our home. I’m sure we’ve saved thousands of dollars in labor costs, not having to hire someone. All we needed was to be brave enough to try, and in most cases we’ve been successful – the cases where we weren’t had nothing to do with your advice, just a bigger problem than we could handle.
And now, we have one that I haven’t read about before. You may have covered it but I’ve not seen it. We are in the planning stages of adding a mother-in-law home to our large property in Acton. This structure will be all electric and will have solar panels to assist with this, so we want to know your recommendation for both heating and cooling. What equipment would you install in something like this? Thank you for your help.
– Jordan J.
Answer: Jordan, I’d use a min-split system, hands down. These are designed with an exterior unit and an interior, wall-mounted unit, and operate to accomplish both heating and cooling. I know several people with them and they are amazing units and are nearly flawless.
As long as the calculations are done properly and the unit/s sized according to the structure size/configuration, this will take care of all climate control within the structure. Depending on the overall size of the dwelling, you’d likely need only one, maybe two, if separate sleeping quarters require their own climate control.
Sometimes this is just a matter of choice. This will obviously need to be included in your building permits and absolutely need to be installed by a qualified, licensed and insured contractor. Don’t skimp on this. It’ll be part of inspection with the permit and must be done properly. Best of luck.
Robert Lamoureux has more than 40 years of experience as a general contractor, with separate licenses in electrical and plumbing contracting. He owns IMS Construction Inc. in Valencia. His opinions are his own, not necessarily those of The Signal. Opinions expressed in this column are not meant to replace the recommendations of a qualified contractor after that contractor has made a thorough visual inspection. Email questions to Robert at [email protected].
