My uncle installed a high velocity ac system in his circa 1900 home and it’s just as effective as my conventionally ducted central ac systems.

Make sure the AC contractor has references from people with similar houses.

I passed over several to get one who had done OLD houses and ADOBE houses.

I agree with lazy g,find a reputable contractor and follow his advice. The way house is laid out make's a lot of difference in which way is best.

Thank you all for the good advice.

One of our quotes is from the same company that replaced our oil with a gas boiler and he knows my house well. He recomended the dual splits with the upstairs ducted and each room plus master bath with ceiling vents. He thought the one minisplits in the dining room would be less intrusive than cutting vents into my orginal tin ceilings and tongue and grove ceilings. I am not sure if the split would bother me after a few weeks or not.

Another quote was from the company who did the central air in my neighbor's similarly aged house. He suggested removing a built in china cabinet to place the chase for a proper central ducted system or go all splits on wall one place interiorly with a pump. This is my least liked plan. I like my china cabinet.

Third quote, for the high velocity was a cold call. Not many in my area install these systems here so I am emailing his list Of references this week. If he had not mentioned the high velocity issues I would have gone with it in a heart beat but now am concerned. I am in New England so not terribly hot all summer but the July heatwaves are often brutal.

"July heatwaves are often brutal."

Haa,we just came through a May triple digit heatwave and June is looking to match it. Yall send us Snowbirds in winter,you might see scorched tail Texas birds come July and August.

If you are in New England, I strongly recommend that you put in the ducted system on the second floor. Air handler in the attic and ceiling vents. See what that does to your overall cooling.

We put central a/c in our second and third floor about 8 years ago (and we are in Baltimore, so it gets hotter than New England, we moved her from Boston). They put the air handler in the attic, the compressor outside and we had a duct running from a closet to get from the third floor to the second floor. Once we had humidity control and cool air on the second floor, for the most part our first floor stayed cool enough as long as we used fans appropriately and did not use the oven on hot days. We put a small window air conditioner in for the hot days. We just finished putting a second unit on the first floor, which is lovely, but we had to put in air return duct which took out much of a built in bookshelf.

I am thinking your contractor is right about the ducted on the second floor and the minisplit on the first floor, but I am recommending that you do the second floor and see how the summer is and see if the minisplit on the first floor is really necessary.

We used an attic air handler and conventional condensing unit outside in our home when we lived in VA to AC the second floor. It was a walk up attic. We put the return in the stairwell ceiling. It worked well to cool down the house as most of the heat was upstairs anyway. We used one large through the wall unit in a sunroom that needed a boost.

In our current home in CT we have a heat pump with three mini splits on the walls in living, sunroom, and master bedroom on the first floor. No AC upstairs, but we don’t use the rooms much anyway, and can put window units in if we need them. At first I hated the appearance of the wall minis but now I don’t notice them much. Beats sweating all summer.

Saypoint, I love your house and I never once noticed you had mini splits! Thanks for your input.

Well, I don’t usually include them in the photos. I still think they’re hideous if I think about it, but I don’t notice them anymore. I suppose there are lots of people who think cast iron radiators are ugly, but I like them personally. In a few years the mini splits will be considered vintage style.

If I were still in an old house, I would seriously consider the high velocity system. I'm not a fan of mini splits.

Just had high velocity installed (in Boston) and started it up a few days ago as it got hot here. I love it. We just bought&moved into an 1840 brick row house in bay village boston. Heating was a mix of steam radiators, baseboard hot water, and electric baseboard (two furnaces !), with no ac. Got quotes for mini split and unico high velocity to do both heat and cool. unico more expensive, but its amazing how they can snake those tubes and pop really small outlets in ceilings, floors and walls. It is really truly quiet (perhaps in part because contractor insulated the tubes along whole lengths) and cools the house to whatever temp you set (lowest i've tried is 68, but really that is not necessary...with the low humidity, low 70s is very comfortable). System is kind of interesting: an electric heat exchanger (like the outside part of a minisplit) hung off the house side wall. This provides cooling and heating down to about 30 degrees. At 30 degrees a gas fired boiler kicks in (which also heats our water for the house). The refridgerant lines and the boiler hot water lines run by two distribution/fan units (one in attic, one in basement) which distribute to the outlets. I have heard that minisplits are borderline effective (and not very efficient) for heating in northern winters. If its just ac you are looking for, minisplit will be cheaper, but you could integrate the heating and cooling with high velocity with truly minimal impact on your house. Loved the contractor and his team...but its expensive. We had 2 to 3 guys here every day for about a month. House is 1800 square feet on three floors (with three zones and nest thermostats) and it was expensive... But honestly, I couldn't be happier with decision. (wife hated the way the minisplits looked anyway, and there were limited options for placing them...front of house is historic-protected, and one size is shared wall). Also great to pick up all the wall space that the baseboard radiators and steam radiators were taking up. First comment on houzz, and not sure if you are supposed to mention contractor names, so I wont.

I am in ft and having a hard time finding many velocity installers. I did get one company in though.

My house is also 1800 sq ft. Plus we would like to cool a finished basement too. My quotes for a combo ducted ductless system is 22k, half conventional and two minisplits is 20 k and the high velocity quote is 27 k. But does not include the basement and we would lose head space which is tight down there with smaller than norm ac ducts but still over four inches:( looks like we will probably go with the higher efficiency combo ducted/ ductless Mitsubishi system with one compressed and no lost head room in our lower level.

We put in A/C when we had a house fire a few years ago and had to gut everything. I don't know the specifics, but there is a unit in what used to be a small closet on the second floor. Ducts go to the second and third floor. The main floor and basement cool off enough with the falling cool air. We have 1800 sq ft.