Until recently, any house without ductwork ("ductless") could not have central air conditioning. If you had forced hot water heating or electric heat, for example, your only options were to use noisy, highly inefficient, and expensive window air conditioners in each and every room you wanted to cool. This was as expensive as it was unsightly.

Now, the invention of ductless air conditioning systems provides everyone, regardless of how old your house is or how it is currently heated, the opportunity to get a central air conditioning. These systems are quiet, simple to use, energy efficient, and quick and easy to install. They can even be "zoned" to cool only parts of your house at a time.

The system consists of just three parts:

1. Quiet indoor air-distribution units

2. Hidden refrigeration lines that link this/these units to...

3. ...an outdoor compressor/condenser.

The only visible parts to the ductless system inside the house are small 1-3 inch in diameter holes where the distribution units are mounted. Ductless systems are actually much less visible that almost any other kind of heating or cooling system.

You do not have to change any existing ductwork, or anything about how you currently heat your house to get a ductless air conditioning system.

Advantages of ductless air conditioning systems:

1. Central air increases the resale value of your house, and in some areas is close to required to get any buyer interest

2. They are very small; in fact they are practically invisible.

3. Ductless air conditioning systems are easy to install, and the technology has made it so that the systems can be installed with little or no disruption to existing walls and facades.

4. These systems have flexible types of installation - you can choose floor, ceiling, and/or wall-mounted units depending on what will be least visible and disruptive to your existing decor

5. They can be "zoned" to individually cool specific rooms or groups of rooms, further reducing the cost and wastefulness, especially as compared to window units.

Even in some homes that are heated with forced air, the ductless air conditioning system may be optimal because it will save the energy that is currently lost as air travels through the ductwork (think of cooled air passing through a duct in a super-hot attic, or hot air through a cold basement).

More and more you will see window units disappearing from homes like yours...look into the opportunity to use ductless central air conditioning yourself!