Ductless Mini-Splits for Homes Without Ductwork

Why ductless suits this housing stock

Many homes around Ladysmith were built without ductwork and heated with electric baseboards, which deliver one unit of heat for each unit of electricity consumed. Every unit of electricity produces one unit of heat, no more.

A heat pump moves heat into your home rather than creating it, so the same electricity gives you several times the heat output. Replacing electric baseboards gives you major efficiency gains, and you can receive up to $4,000 through the Home Renovation Rebate Program with no income test.

Ductless makes it possible without construction. Retrofitting ducts into a finished house means dropped ceilings, boxed chases, and disruption that frequently costs more than the equipment. A multi-head ductless layout reaches the same rooms through a series of small wall penetrations.

How many heads, and where

The instinct is one head per room. That is usually wrong in both directions.

An open main floor with a connected kitchen, dining and living area is often a single zone, and one correctly sized head handles it. Bedrooms behind closed doors down a hallway are the opposite — they receive very little from a head in the hall, and a house that closes bedroom doors at night has to account for that.

Head count also drives cost more than any other variable: a single-zone system starts around $3,500 while a four-head layout reaches into the $15,000 range before rebates. That's why we size the zoning with a room-by-room heat loss calculation instead of a walk-through — it's what decides most of the cost.

Living with a ductless system

Two things usually surprise homeowners: how indoor heads look on the wall, and how well they cool in summer. The indoor heads are visible — they mount high on a wall, and while modern units are considerably slimmer than older ones, they are not invisible. We work with you to pick head locations that look good and heat effectively.

The second is that ductless systems cool as well as heat. Ductless mini-splits provide air conditioning alongside heating, which has made summer cooling a major reason homeowners install them.

You can clean the air filters in each indoor head by pulling them out and rinsing them, which maintains performance better than an annual service call. The outdoor unit needs its coil kept clear, which on a salt-exposed lot means rinsing more often than an inland install would.

How a ductless system goes in

1. 1

   Zone the house — Each indoor head serves a zone. Deciding how many, and where, is a heat loss question per room rather than a room-count question. Open-plan main floors often need fewer heads than expected; bedrooms down a hallway often need more.

2. 2

   Site the outdoor unit — Away from bedroom windows, clear of the drip line, high enough for airflow, and as far from direct salt spray as the lot allows. Line length between outdoor and indoor units is limited, which constrains the options.

3. 3

   Run lines, mount heads — Refrigerant lines, condensate drainage and control wiring run through a small penetration per head. On most houses this is finish work rather than construction.

4. 4

   Electrical, commission, rebate — We commission your system and help you submit the rebate paperwork, while the electrical work is permitted and inspected through Technical Safety BC.

What the job includes

• Single-zone ductless installation

  One outdoor unit and one indoor head, sized to a single zone, for condos, additions and single rooms.

• Multi-zone ductless conversion from baseboards

  We convert whole homes off electric baseboards using multiple indoor heads, and we help you submit the rebate paperwork.

Where the coverage area differs

Chemainus and Saltair sit on the same coastal exposure as Ladysmith, so equipment specification carries across. Older heritage homes require different head layouts than larger newer builds in Yellow Point, where higher head counts are common.

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