Air Conditioning a Lanai

[jjfgsowa@yahoo.com]

I am interested in anybody who has had their lanai air conditioned with a Mitsubishi unit or using their present heating cooling home system to do the lanai. Which one works better? Thanks ....John

[Happydaz]

We have the Mitsubishi Split system installed on our lanai. It works great and we use it for both A/C and heat. It works perfectly. We always leave the sliders open between the lanai and house. Before we got the system we experienced trying to A/C the lanai from the house system. It was not that effective. Our northwest facing lanai would be hotter than the house plus the living area began to have variable temperature control. We already have a stretched Gardenia so trying to A/C and heat a 30 by 10 foot stretched lanai did not work well. Besides the house systems don't always have the capacity to do the lanai in addition to the house.

[jjfgsowa@yahoo.com]

I am interested in anybody who has had their lanai air conditioned with a Mitsubishi unit or using their present heating cooling home system to do the lanai. Which one works better? Thanks ....John

Thank yu so much for the experience and information ....John

[LittleDog]

We got the Mitsubishi unit for our glass enclosed lanai. I did'nt try to heat and cool the lanai with our house unit as it doesn't have the capacity to do both efficiently. Love the Mitsubishi.

John

[Vill01talk]

John.... In my previous life I owned a heating/air firm. The ductless mini-splits as we called them were designed specifically for spot heating/cooling (like a linai). Nice featureis the remote control thermostat. Should work just fine, but heating capabilities can be limited. Should find this unit in two efficiency levels.... 13 SEER and 21 SEER. More efficient unit uses newer technology that we will soon see in most units.

[Carl in Tampa]

Deep in the recesses of my mind I recall having read that if you extend your existing home a/c system to include your enclosed lanai there is a possible potential increase in your property tax assessment.

And, of course, window units are prohibited.

The Mitsubishi may be the way to go. There is an alternative roll-around unit (I call it R2D2 because of its appearance) which sits in the room, but it requires an exhaust vent and takes up floor space.

[Meddick]

Deep in the recesses of my mind I recall having read that if you extend your existing home a/c system to include your enclosed lanai there is a possible potential increase in your property tax assessment.

And, of course, window units are prohibited.

The Mitsubishi may be the way to go. There is an alternative roll-around unit (I call it R2D2 because of its appearance) which sits in the room, but it requires an exhaust vent and takes up floor space.

We had an R2D2 in our apartment in India. It was bulky, noisy and did not cool the room particularly well. Other than that, it was fine. I suggest careful research on this solution before investing in it.

Don

[gogoandbert]

call the firm that origionally installed your a/c system for an evaluation of your present systems ability to cool your enclosed lanai, as well as the main living area.

munn's did the math for me, and the difference in cost was significantly less expensive, less invasive, and no cooling pipes or devices hanging on the wall.

And the cooling is fine!!

[jjfgsowa@yahoo.com]

Thanks everybody so much for your input....John

[RErmer]

We had an R2D2 (love that description!) to use in our South Florida home during emergencies. Can not recommend it - always hard to find a good way to vent it, and not particularly effective. It beat nothing in a hurricane, but not by much. On the other hand, I lived in a rented studio apartment (about the size of a lanai) for about a month with the Mitsubishi unit, and it was great , keeping the area as cool as I wanted it and very quiet. Also, our neighbors just had their lanai extended and went with a Mutsubishi unit because they were told that if they expanded their "house" a/c to include the lanai, the square footage of the lanai would be added to the size of their house, resulting in higher prosperity taxes. Can't vouch for this info because our neighbors aren't always right, but worth checking.

[mac]

Who installed your Mitsubishi unit? Were you pleased with the work?

[Carl in Tampa]

We had an R2D2 (love that description!) to use in our South Florida home during emergencies. Can not recommend it - always hard to find a good way to vent it, and not particularly effective. It beat nothing in a hurricane, but not by much. On the other hand, I lived in a rented studio apartment (about the size of a lanai) for about a month with the Mitsubishi unit, and it was great , keeping the area as cool as I wanted it and very quiet. Also, our neighbors just had their lanai extended and went with a Mutsubishi unit because they were told that if they expanded their "house" a/c to include the lanai, the square footage of the lanai would be added to the size of their house, resulting in higher prosperity taxes. Can't vouch for this info because our neighbors aren't always right, but worth checking.

And, how, you might ask, will the tax man know that you have more square footage under air conditioning to increase your tax assessment.

Because, I respond, the contractor must get a building permit to make the modifications. The tax assessor gets his information from building permit files.

:shocked:

[Meddick]

When a split system is installed in a lanai in a house with concrete block construction, can it be installed so that the refrigerant and power cables are hidden in the lanai walls?

Don

[tag460]

We also have the Mitsubishi Split system installed on our lanai. It works great and we use it for both A/C and heat. It works perfectly. Had our system installed by M & S Air Conditioning price was $3500.00 Jim McDonald 352-314-5004.

[FloridaShrimp]

We had the Mitsubishi AC with heat pump installed 18 months ago and highly recommend it. Our old AC unit wasn't able to accommodate our 15x15 lanai.

Home Page (http://www.msaccfl.com/)

M & S air conditioning 352-314-5004

[mcdonalddrm]

We are planning on extending our lanai soon. We checked with Sumter county tax appraiser about this and he said if you enclose or extend, then add heat/AC, your taxes go up. Your existing screen lanai is taxed at 45% of its value.

[karostay]

Enclosed our Lani just a year ago and at the time contemplating adding air.
We have found by leaving the sliding glass doors open and ceiling fan on the temperature is very comfortable summer and winter our ac/ heat system handles it very efficiently.
We have also added window shades to minimize solar heating