[jyl]

Originally Posted by Tim Hancock

A coworker of mine left to go work for Bosch. He got me a killer deal on two 18k outdoor units which I used to power 4 indoor units. My house is in NW Ohio and is a 1960's built split level. I have one 12k indoor handler that takes care of our main living area and then 3 9k indoor handlers (this was overkill) in our 3 upstairs bedrooms.

I installed them myself after purchasing a Harbor Freight vacuum pump. I made my line covers out of white plastic down spouts. It was not rocket science, but it took me a couple weeks of part time work to get everything around and to install conduit and AC fuseboxes outside to power the outdoor units.

I was under $4k but much of that was due to the employee discount.

Our house only had electric ceiling and baseboard heat and window/wall mounted AC.
We have been using the minisplits for both heat and cooling. They work great so far and are very quiet both inside and outside.

I am guessing most modern brands are similar in performance these days?

Wow, no way I can get close to that cost. A Mitsujitsukon 18K dual zone with two air handlers is $3000-3500 and I need two plus everything else.