It is technically possible to install a mini-split yourself—how-to videos on This Old House look straightforward enough, and there’s a forum full of Reddit homeowners who say they’ve done it—but self-installation is probably not worth the risk. For one thing, even a perfect DIY installation may void the unit’s warranty, exposing thousands of dollars of equipment to the risk of not being covered on a legitimate claim. Beyond that, De Stasio told us, “There is so much that can go wrong if it’s not professionally installed. Your typical homeowner does not have the tools to do it or the instrumentation to take the measurements to know that it’s been done right.” Getting the right size unit is not as simple as calculating the area of a room, for example. “A 400 square foot room in New Hampshire requires a different amount of heating and air conditioning than a 400 square foot room in Florida.” A good HVAC installer will do a proper heat load calculation, which means, as explained by Todd Washam, director of industry and internal relations at The Air Conditioning Contractors of America, they “measure the windows, the tree overhangs for the shading, the pitch of your roof, the square footage, what type of floors, and the insulation in your attic and walls.”
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