Ductless Heat Pumps & Mini-Split Systems

A ductless heat pump heats and cools without ductwork, which makes it the practical answer for a large share of homes across Seattle and the Greater Eastside — particularly older houses that were never built to carry conditioned air, and rooms that have always run hot or cold.

How a Ductless System Works

An outdoor compressor connects to one or more indoor units through a refrigerant line only three inches across. Each indoor head conditions the space it serves and runs on its own thermostat, so a bonus room over the garage no longer has to share a setting with the living room. Because there is no duct network, none of the energy is lost to leakage — which in a typical ducted home accounts for a meaningful share of what you pay to heat and cool.

Modern inverter-driven systems modulate rather than cycling on and off, so they hold a steadier temperature and draw less power doing it. They also work well in Pacific Northwest winters, which is the question most homeowners ask first.

Where Ductless Makes Sense

This is the part that changes most across our service area, and it is worth getting right before you spend money. The housing stock in Seattle and on the Eastside is not the same, and neither is the correct system.

Older Seattle houses

Much of the housing inside Seattle predates 1950. Wallingford, Ballard, Phinney Ridge, Queen Anne and the older streets of West Seattle are full of homes with plaster walls, tight framing cavities, and either no ductwork at all or a single gravity-furnace trunk that was never designed to distribute conditioned air. Retrofitting ducts into those houses means opening walls and ceilings and surrendering closet space. Ductless avoids all of it, and solves cooling in buildings constructed on the assumption the city would never need it.

Bellevue, Redmond and Kirkland

Mid-century Eastside housing is a different proposition. Homes across Lake Hills, Newport, Wilburton and the older Redmond and Kirkland subdivisions generally have usable ductwork, which often makes a ducted heat pump better value than a multi-head ductless system. Where ductless earns its place on the Eastside is in additions, bonus rooms over garages, daylight basements and primary suites — spaces added to a house whose duct system was never resized to serve them. We look at the duct design before recommending either, and we will tell you when ducted is the better buy.

Condos and townhomes

In downtown Bellevue, along the Kirkland and Redmond corridors, and across Seattle’s newer infill, the constraint is rarely the equipment — it is where the outdoor unit is permitted to go. Balcony and rooftop siting, HOA approval, noise limits and shared walls all shape what can be installed. Ductless is usually the only system that fits those rules, and we are used to working through building management rather than around it.

Large and multi-zone homes

On Mercer Island and across Medina, Clyde Hill and the Points, homes tend to be large, individually built and full of additions. Comfort problems there are almost always distribution problems rather than capacity problems. Multi-zone ductless lets each area hold its own setpoint, and it adds cooling to houses running on hydronic or radiant heat without disturbing the existing system — common in that housing, and usually worth preserving.

Newer plateau housing

Homes built through the 1990s and 2000s in Sammamish, Issaquah Highlands and Talus came with builder-specified equipment now reaching the end of its life. Those houses generally have ducts, so the usual path at replacement is a ducted heat pump conversion, with ductless added only where a room has always been uncomfortable.

Woodinville, Bothell and Newcastle

Woodinville and Bothell sit at the north end of the Eastside; Newcastle sits at the south end, above Coal Creek. Different corners of the map, same question. Properties in all three tend to be larger and less uniform than the subdivisions between them — a main house that has been added to more than once, plus a shop, studio or accessory dwelling that was never on the original heating system. Ductless conditions those spaces without running ductwork across a property, and for a detached building it is usually the only practical option. All three are wooded, so siting the outdoor unit clear of falling debris is part of the design, and Newcastle’s steeper hillside lots add access and clearance constraints of their own. We work throughout Woodinville, Bothell and Newcastle, and across the rest of the Eastside.

What Installation Involves