Two boxes, one copper line set, and a hole through the wall about three inches across. That is the whole machine. This page explains each piece in plain language so you know what you are buying before anybody shows up with a drill.
A mini split is a heat pump split into two halves. The indoor half hangs in the room you want comfortable. The outdoor half sits outside on a pad or a wall bracket. They are joined by a bundle of insulated copper tubing called the line set, plus a control wire and a condensate drain. There is no ductwork anywhere in the system, which is why it is called ductless.
Because it is a heat pump and not just an air conditioner, the same equipment runs in reverse in the winter. It moves heat out of the house in August and into the house in January. In Central Texas that covers essentially the whole year without a separate furnace.
Our standard installs use the Confortotal heat pump mini split. You can look at the unit itself on the supplier's page:
View the Confortotal Heat Pump Standard WiFi unit
View the Confortotal Heat Pump Inverter Wi-Fi unit
Specifications on those pages come from the supplier. The right size and configuration for your home is confirmed at the site visit and put in writing before any deposit.
The white box on the wall. Inside it is a coil, a long quiet fan, a filter you can pull out and rinse, and a set of motorized louvers that aim the air. It is the only part of the system you interact with, usually through a small remote or an app. It runs quietly enough that people put them in bedrooms.
The metal box outside with the fan in the face of it. It holds the compressor, which is the part that actually does the work of moving heat. It needs clear air around it, a level surface, and its own electrical circuit. It is the loudest part of the system and it is outside, which is the point.
Two insulated copper refrigerant lines, a control wire, and a condensate drain, bundled together and run between the two boxes. It passes through one sleeved hole in your wall. Outside, it usually gets covered with a paintable channel so it is a clean line down the wall instead of exposed tubing.
Refrigerant lines get vacuumed down and pressure checked before the system is charged. That step is invisible, takes real time, and is the difference between a system that lasts and one that leaks in a year. Ask any installer whether they pull a vacuum. The answer tells you a lot.
A zone is one indoor head serving one area. How many zones you need is a question about rooms and doors, not about square footage alone.
| Setup | What it looks like | Good fit when |
|---|---|---|
| Single zone | One indoor head, one outdoor condenser, one line set. | You are conditioning one room or one open area. A garage conversion, a shop, a primary bedroom, an addition the old system never reached. |
| Multi zone | Two or more indoor heads sharing one larger outdoor condenser, each with its own line set back to that condenser. | You want separate rooms at separate temperatures and you only have space or appetite for one box outside. |
| Several single zones | Each room gets its own head and its own small condenser outside. | The rooms are far apart, or you want one room to be able to fail without taking the others down with it. |
Multi zone is not automatically cheaper than several single zones, and it is not automatically better. It depends on line set runs, where the outdoor unit can legally and sensibly sit, and what your electrical panel has room for. That is a walk around your house, not a formula.
People want a number before anyone visits, so here is the honest version of the rough arithmetic installers start from.
The very general starting point is somewhere around 20 to 25 BTU of cooling capacity per square foot of conditioned space in a Central Texas summer. A 400 square foot room lands roughly in the 9,000 BTU neighborhood by that arithmetic. That is a starting point for a conversation and nothing more.
It moves, sometimes a lot, based on things nobody can see from a phone call: ceiling height, how much west facing glass you have, whether the attic above is insulated or is a solar oven, whether the room has an exterior door that opens all day, and how many people and machines are generating heat in there. A converted garage with an uninsulated roll up door does not behave like a bedroom of the same size.
So treat any number you get before a site visit as a guess. We confirm the actual capacity on site, in your room, looking at your walls and your panel, and we put it in writing before you pay a deposit. We are not going to promise you a specific size over the phone and then discover on install day that it was wrong.
Most one to three zone installs are a single day. Here is the order of operations so nothing on the day is a surprise.
Three decisions are genuinely yours. Everything else is our problem.
High on an interior or exterior wall, aimed into the room rather than at the back of a door. Avoid blowing straight down onto a bed or a desk chair unless you like that. Shorter line set runs are cheaper and simpler, so a wall close to where the condenser can sit is usually the easy answer.
One head per space you want to control independently. A room behind a door that stays closed needs its own head. An open living and kitchen area usually does not need two.
Somewhere with airflow, somewhere you can still walk past, and somewhere the sound is not directly outside a bedroom window. Side yards work. Under a bedroom window is technically fine and socially unwise.
We would rather show you nothing than show you a stock photo of equipment that is not what we install. A picture of the actual unit goes here once the crew confirms it. Want to know the exact brand and model before you commit? Call and ask. It goes on your written quote before you pay a deposit.
Standard install is $2,400 for materials and labor. One day each week is JOKER DAY at $2,200, and the day moves every week, so which day it lands on is the joke. A $400 materials deposit books the day. The balance is due on completion, after the system is running and you have watched it run.
No in home sales visit, no financing pitch at your kitchen table, no four hour presentation. Call, describe the room, get on the calendar.