Mini-split and very cold weather

[davidl]

Hello, I am looking at installing a heating and cooling minisplit in my house. I live in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

I currently have a gas boiler that heats my house (1187 sq feet). I am looking for a cooling system and thought I would also include heat to help offset the rising gas prices.
Some of the contractors I talked to said the minisplit should work fine while others said that once it gets below 10 degrees outside it won't work well.

I'm trying to figure out who I should believe.
The unit they all suggest is the Mitsubishi Mr Slim MSH24WN. http://mrslim.com/Products/itemDetail.asp?ProductSubCategoryID=78&ProductCategoryID=7&ProductID=986

Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you

[johnsp]

I have mini-split heat pumps in my house but only use them spring and fall before temps drop below freezing to cut back on oil usage on my boiler. They have one model that has electric strip backup. (1.5 ton I think). I notice that blowing heated air down from a wall mounted evaporator does not distribute well as it does in cooling.
I don't recommend expecting these units to carry your heating needs all winter. The units seem to cycle too frequently into defrost mode when it gets very cold out to keep the rooms warm.

[Edited by johnsp on 10-24-2005 at 05:16 PM]