edeevee, Are you having trouble with the manufacturers' web sites? Where have you tried, Mistubishi, Daikin, Panasonic, Fujitsi? There are a couple of ways of comparing mini splits to more familiar equipment. Compared to a more conventional, whole house, ducted system, the indoor heat exchangers are much smaller and most are installed with no ducts. It might be easier to compare mini splits to window units. Cut your window unit in half and put the noisy, outdoor part on a pad on the ground. Take the smaller, quieter, indoor part and mount it high up on the wall or in the ceiling and connect them with refrigerant pipes. (In between, make it a lot more efficient and comfortable with variable-speed blowers and compressor. Make the controls more sophisticated to increase efficiency and comfort as well. The ducted units can handle more than one room and are small so they might be hidden in the living space more easily, or boxed in in an attic to keep them within the living space. They cost more than the high-wall equipment as do the ceiling cassettes. There are also floor units, but I don't think they are used much. Normally, you have one high-wall unit in each room. Bathrooms are often not served this way. Alternatives for bathrooms are to keep the electrical resistance heat there, You can also use jump ducts in the walls to transfer conditioned air from room to room. As the number of (small) rooms increases in a house, the relative expense of installing mini-splits increases compared to a more conventional forced-air heat pump system. I have 7 indoor units. Due to my lifestyle and other reasons, I think it paid off for me to pay the extra money to get out of the ducted cooling mode.

I was in a similar situation. Old home from the 60's. Installed a new woodstove, fixed chimney etc to keep my baseboard heating costs low. Whats the most efficient depends on the times. Natural gas if available, Propane, and oil prices fluctuate. It's a roll of the dice. Wood is always the cheapest but labor intensive. Coal if its easily available. Pellet is an option too, but you need to store enough, wood, coal, or pellets somewhere easily accessible. You need to either hire, or clean your chimney and stove yourself. Here's a tip. You ain't getting' any younger. Choose your battles wisely. What if you throw your back out? Then what... Mini splits. Here's what I found. Efficient? To a degree. -20? Nonsense. More like 36. Real world numbers here. You have to run an electric heating element to the coils so when they freeze, you can melt the ice. $$ Then if you're smart, you make sure you build or have built, a shield of sorts to keep the elements off it. If there's a snow drift, you better get out there and clear it by hand. Some will bolt it to the walls to keep it off the floor, but you can't go that high and awnings only do so much. Think about it. The machines need to be serviced. Lets talk a 10 year ROI here. Warranties, such as offered by Mitsubishi, require a licensed professional to come out and service it once a year. $$. If you don't pay, you lose the warranty. How nice. You could gamble and risk it all...There goes my savings over a 10 year period. You either need to buy, or clean the filters. Anywhere form 1 to 3 of em annually depending on model. Replaced eventually if you clean them yourself. Cost of installation? Ridiculous. Run electric, upgrade your panel, run ugly line sets and condensate pipes all over the place? Bah. THE ONLY WAY you could save money is if you knew someone in the biz to cut you an install deal. Other than that you'll pay 10K on average. I got quoted $5k for a single 18K unit. $10K on a split system running off a 36K unit. Run the numbers and you'll see its just not worth it. How much money can you save over a 10 year period will yield an ROI that just about equals out. Clearly a waste of time and effort. That's whats its about. Peace of mind. Baseboards = zero maintenance other than a vacuum cleaner or a coat of paint. Heck. My wife can do that. Companies/Businesses/People can and will say ANYTHING to convince you to empty your pockets. Its unethical yes, against the law, no. Leave the baseboard and have some peace of mind. You'll pay inflated costs over time or drop thousands at once and HOPE that you found a contractor worth his spit. Mini Splits. BAH. You can't escape paying. No one can. One way or the other they're gonna get you. The smartest guys in the world have run the numbers. The system has been set up. Its the working class that pays. Not the poor, Not the rich. Remember that. Choose the path of least resistance and don't' let these jerks fool you. Everybody hates math. You just have to do it. When was the last time you heard someone say they love math...That's how they get you. "Coil size, amperage, etc will fall on sadly deaf ears - with math involved I won't follow it. If possible, please, descriptions are better such as 'the coils are now bigger' or 'they use a different metal so it does x'."

Yes, Inspectapedia acknowledges that the minimum clearances varies by mfg. (Inspectapedia is geared as a resource for home inspectors and the 12" clearance is a guideline. If an inspector sees a heater installed with less clearance, then a flag goes up until it is confirmed that the mfg's specs allow less than 12"...) I don't want to belabor the subject but I'm not sure you understand that you have baseboard heaters buried in a wall. I'm not talking about the wall behind the bookcases but the effective new wall that the bookcases have made. The heaters are now recessed & in the installation notes, King says "DO NOT Recess Heater." Figure 2 at the link: https://king-electric.com/wp-content/uploads/kel_product_files/K-CB_INSTALL.pdf So, you would (maybe) be OK if the heaters were mounted to the front of bookcases. (Double check if it OK for them to be mounted directly to wood.) And they wouldn't look too, too bad if painted a color to match the color of the bookcases. That may end up being your best option because toe kick heaters are usually intended to be supplemental heat sources, not a main heat source. You may need to install more than one & that will compound the noise level. I hope I'm not coming across as argumentative. I am is concerned because you have a dangerous installation that could have drastic consequences.

You have to know exactly what you have. My home was built in 1970 and had electric baseboard heat. In 2000 the owners added a basement and master suite to the house. At the same time they added central air, gas heat and gas fireplace. When I purchased my home 3 years ago the electric baseboard heat was turned off, but not disconnected. Unlike most real estate transactions, the owners were here every time I came to the home. The owner's were elderly and moving into assisted living. She had Alzheimers and couldn't leave the house, He took me room by room and showed me everything he had done to improve the home over the years. He showed me where the water shut off was and where the instruction manuals were for every appliance. He also showed me video tapes of his beloved wife when she was a backup singer and dancer for the Benny Goodman Band. He explained that they added the forced air heat and turned the electric heat off, but never got around to removing all the baseboards. They had replaced carpet the year before the addition and figured they would remove the baseboard heaters when they replaced the carpet again, but that never happened. She got sick and he was just trying to keep up with caring for her and the house. Simply put - it was essentially defunct - he had turned the breaker off, but it was never removed. I am removing the baseboard units as I renovate each room.