Ducted or Split Air Conditioning: How to Choose
Key takeaways
- Ducted hides everything and needs somewhere to hide it.
- Split needs a wall and a pipe route, which almost every property has.
- A ducted system without zoning throws away most of its advantage.
- On a finished property with solid ceilings the choice is usually made for you.
Both systems do the same thing by different routes. A ducted system conditions air at one machine and pushes it through concealed ductwork to grilles in each room. A split system puts a small unit in each room and joins it to an outdoor unit with two pipes. Everything else follows from that difference.
The head-to-head
| Ducted | Split and multi-split | |
|---|---|---|
| Visible in the room | A linear grille | A unit on the wall |
| Noise in the room | Air movement only, plant is elsewhere | The fan is in the room with you |
| Needs a ceiling void | Yes, and a real one | No |
| Retrofit into finished ceilings | Difficult, sometimes impossible | Routine |
| Room-by-room control | Only if zoned, and that is designed in | Inherent, each unit is its own zone |
| One room fails | Usually the whole system stops | One room, if they are separate systems |
| Outside the building | One outdoor unit | One, or several |
| Servicing access | Behind a ceiling, so hatches must be designed in | Everything reachable |
When ducted is clearly right
- The property is being built, and the void is part of the design
- A renovation is going far enough that ceilings are coming down anyway
- The interior is one where a wall unit would be intrusive
- Several rooms are being conditioned at once rather than one at a time
- Bedroom noise is the actual complaint
- Only one outdoor unit will be accepted or will fit
When split is clearly right
- The ceilings are finished and staying that way
- The ceilings are low, and a duct would come out of head height
- It is an apartment with a structural slab and no void
- Two or three rooms are the problem and the rest of the house is fine
- The installation is being phased over several years
- One room failing must not take the whole property with it
The comparison people get wrong
Ducted is usually described as the premium option and split as the compromise, which is only half true. A ducted system with no zoning is one machine conditioning the entire property to whatever the single thermostat says, so empty bedrooms are cooled all afternoon in order that a living room is comfortable at six. Separate split units in the rooms that are used are, in that comparison, both cheaper and better.
What makes ducted genuinely premium is zoning, and zoning is dampers in the ducts and controls on each area. It is the item most often left out of a cheaper ducted quote, so when two ducted prices differ noticeably the number of zones is the first thing to compare.
What each one costs in things that are not money
Ducted costs ceiling height, design time and disruption. It also costs a commitment: the duct layout is built once and changing it later means opening the ceiling again. In return the rooms are quiet and empty of equipment.
Split costs you a unit on the wall in every room that is conditioned, and either several outdoor units or one multi-split whose failure is shared. In return it is quick, it can be added to, and everything is where somebody can reach it.
If it is close
When the property genuinely allows both, the deciding questions are usually how much you mind seeing equipment, and whether the rooms are used at the same times or at different ones. Rooms used together suit one zoned ducted system. Rooms used at different times by different numbers of people suit individual units.
The full description of each is on the ducted air conditioning page and the split and multi-split page. If the property is finished and ducted still appeals, there is a separate article on whether ducted can go into an existing villa.
Is ducted air conditioning quieter?
In the room, usually yes, because the machine is not in it. What people hear instead is air at the grille, and that is a design and balancing question rather than an equipment one. A well-balanced ducted system is quiet; an undersized duct pushed hard is not.
Can a ducted system cool one room only?
Only if it is zoned. Without zoning it conditions everything it serves, which is the whole argument for putting dampers and controls in at the design stage. Retrofitting them into a finished ceiling is a different job from including them.
Do multi-split units all have to run at once?
No, but they share an outdoor unit, so the combined demand of whatever is running has to sit inside what that unit can deliver. Connecting more indoor capacity than the outdoor unit supports means that on the hottest afternoon, when everything is on, nothing performs as specified.
Which lasts longer?
Neither has an inherent advantage; installation quality and servicing decide it. What does differ is what a failure means. A split unit failing takes one room out. A ducted system failing takes the property out, which is worth weighing in a rental or a house full of guests.
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