Adding AC to row house — options

[Anonymous]

Can anyone help me get the overall picture here? I’m trying to get a sense of what the options are and very ballpark estimates of costs and pros/cons.

100 yr old DC row house, 600 sqft on each of 3 levels (basement level has garage converted to BR and a bathroom). Radiator heat currently works fine, system is original. Window are probably 15 years old. The house will be renovated top to bottom, but it’s fully livable now and full gut renovation is not an option.

[Anonymous]

We did high velocity hvac 10 years ago and it’s great. I think it was $12-15k and our rowhouse is bigger.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did high velocity hvac 10 years ago and it’s great. I think it was $12-15k and our rowhouse is bigger.

Is that also heat or just AC? (I can’t tell if the “h” of “hvac” stands for high or heat). What units and ductwork are required?

[Anonymous]

If you don’t have any ductwork now - unlikely unless there was central air at one point that was removed - you will either need to add it or look for a ductless system.

Ductless mini splits are one option. The high velocity ones are another.

[Anonymous]

High velocity was $24k for 2400sf of space where we had radiant heating. We went with mini splits for ac and heat where there was no radiant heating which added $16k. 95 year old DC home. We lost a small amount of closet space and corners of rooms where the flex ducts penetrated the floors/ceiling- all have been boxed in including baseboards and looks seamless. Highly recommend.

[Anonymous]

Are “mini splits” the box units on the walls (more popular in Europe)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are “mini splits” the box units on the walls (more popular in Europe)?

Yes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did high velocity hvac 10 years ago and it’s great. I think it was $12-15k and our rowhouse is bigger.

Is that also heat or just AC? (I can’t tell if the “h” of “hvac” stands for high or heat). What units and ductwork are required?

Sorry, I should have said just AC, not HVAC. There’s a unit on the roof and no ductwork. The tubes go through some closets but nothing that you can see. All you can see are vents. The only trick is placing the vents in good locations. We had one over our DS’s bunk bed and ended up closing it ‘cause it was too much cold air straight on him.

[Anonymous]

We have basically the same house but 700 sf per floor. We only added AC on the ground floor and upstairs; basement is only partially finished and never gets too warm. Anyway, we got standard central air (with ducts) put in about 7 years ago, after living in the house for 7 years without. It was around 10 or 11,000 and the absolute best $$ we’ve spent on this house.

[Anonymous]

Spacepak or unico high velocity systems are great for row houses. We installed ours 20 years ago and love it.

[Anonymous]

Without a doubt the best thing we did to our DC row house was central air. The contractor put the compressor in the attic crawl space and ductwork/vents were dropped from the attic for second floor bedrooms and from the attic through our 2nd floor closets for the first floor. We lost a bit of closet space but worth every inch lost!

[Anonymous]

Is there a rough comparison in price? AC w/ vents vs. high velocity vs the split units?

[Anonymous]

If you go for a traditional HVAC, think about where you're going to place the compressor. It would be easier to access on the patio, but noisy and not very pretty, especially if your lot is on the smaller side. My compressor is on the roof, which while quiet and out of sight, becomes a colossal PITA when anything needs to be done. I don't have roof access from the inside of my rowhouse, so even something as simple as clearing away snow requires a dangerous climb several floors up an exterior ladder. Replacing it will require a crane, which will add thousands to the cost.

If I could choose from scratch, I would keep radiator heat and and add split packs. The mini compressors have a smaller footprint and can be attached to the exterior wall itself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Without a doubt the best thing we did to our DC row house was central air. The contractor put the compressor in the attic crawl space and ductwork/vents were dropped from the attic for second floor bedrooms and from the attic through our 2nd floor closets for the first floor. We lost a bit of closet space but worth every inch lost!

Do you mean the air handler? I can't see how putting the compressor in the crawl space could possibly be legal, but I've also dealt with my fair share of DC-area contractors who do really negligent work, so there's that....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you go for a traditional HVAC, think about where you're going to place the compressor. It would be easier to access on the patio, but noisy and not very pretty, especially if your lot is on the smaller side. My compressor is on the roof, which while quiet and out of sight, becomes a colossal PITA when anything needs to be done. I don't have roof access from the inside of my rowhouse, so even something as simple as clearing away snow requires a dangerous climb several floors up an exterior ladder. Replacing it will require a crane, which will add thousands to the cost.

If I could choose from scratch, I would keep radiator heat and and add split packs. The mini compressors have a smaller footprint and can be attached to the exterior wall itself.

I'm not familiar with the terms split packs and mini compressor. Is there a general name for this system that I can research more?