You may want to search this forum while waiting for an answer.

Lots of existing threads here on your subject.

Many Thanks will do!

Jim,

try a search on " mini split "

From your user name, were you at Ground Zero?

Lost family first-responders there.

We have 2 ductless minisplit systems--one is a mitsubishi and the other is an LG. Both are dual head.

We like both of them. Have had them now 1 and 5 years (LG was first; we added on several hundred square feet of house, and got the second system).

We live in temperate Pacific NW. It rarely gets above 90* here, and when it does, it doesn't last long (example, last week we saw temps in the upper 80s, this week, 60s). Most homes do not have A/C, so we are special in that when the weather is hot, we are cool in the house.

Similarly, it rarely gets in the teens here, and when it does, it doesn't last.

The extremes of temperatures are an important consideration for whether or not ductless is a good choice for your home. Ductless are very efficient, but have trouble keeping up in Long Hot Spells, or Long Cold spells. For areas that have long cold spells, it is recommended you have a secondary heating source (we originally had baseboard heat. We've removed all of them, now that we know that we don't need them. But, we kept a few of them a few years to see how the LG would keep up in the winter).

I believe some/most systems are improving the range of ductless efficiency too (for colder and hotter weather. PNW just happens to not have that).

I am not familiar enough with your NY area to say if it would be a good fit.

Do you have the option of geothermal? Or, like in the PNW, is it cost-prohibitive?

Search "mini split", "mini-split" and "mini split". You might try "ionized" too since I have posted a lot on them. I like my seven units inside and three outside. I live in an area that is a lot warmer so heating costs are trivial compared to cooling. Since gas prices have gone way down, it is a lot less expensive to heat with a gas furnace now. They ARE very gentle on relatively small backup generators. There is no measurable start-up surge and although I am sill making observations, I see that I can get 15,000 BTU from less than 3,800 watts

if you go ducted, do not put ducts in the attic or in a crawl space. Make sure that they are inside the house envelope. A return in each room (with a door) is preferable to a central return to eliminate pressure differentials.

They have a minimum temperature that they will provide heat at so you have to check that out for your area. I would think they are NOT recommended as a sole heat source in NY. We have infloor radiant heat so only rely on the ductless for AC.

If I were building new I would get ducted just because it is cheaper and everyone knows how to install/work on them.

However since we had no ducts we installed Fujitsu ductless mini-splits and are very happy with them. They are amazing in the long hot spells. Really too cold alot of the time when it is so hot out because they put the cold air out from high up and it falls to the floor so you gave cold air coming down around you. As a result if it is really hot sometimes I have to turn the temperature up in the house to be comfortable.

We turn the rest of the house off over night and just leave the master on. In the morning the house feels cool again very quickly because of how the air falls around you.