Do Mini Splits Ever Shut Off?

When you wake up in the morning, your mini split is on and running. When you come home from work or school later in the day, your mini split is still on and running.

Of course, when you get ready to go to bed as well, your mini split is running.

Now that you’ve noticed your mini split’s operational frequency, you can’t exactly un-notice it. Is it normal for your mini split to run so much or should a mini split ever shut off?

Mini splits run quite frequently and possibly even–as it seems to you–all the time.

This isn’t going to be the nightmare on your energy bill that you think it may be, though.

You have to remember that a ductless mini split system is a lot more energy-efficient than traditional HVAC such as furnaces or central air conditioning.

A mini split will heat or cool according to preselected zones so the house doesn’t needlessly receive hot or cold air when and where it doesn’t need it.

If your mini split is running frequently, your energy bills won’t be nearly as high as if your traditional HVAC systems were running infrequently but for just as many days. Just compare the bills and see!

The reason for that, besides a mini split’s natural energy efficiency, is that the system isn’t always running at full steam.

Mini splits have a low power mode that they’ll naturally switch to as the circumstances call for.

For instance, let’s say that it’s late autumn and the weather is starting to get cold. You have your mini split set to heating mode and it’s running at a very comfortable 72 degrees Fahrenheit.

When the temperature in your home gets close to 72 degrees, there’s no need for the mini split to keep running. The temperature is where you want it, and if the unit continues to churn out warm air, then the temp could get too hot.

Usually, a furnace or heater will turn off when it reaches 72 degrees and then power itself back on if the house starts to get too cold, such as 69 or 70 degrees.

However, each time your traditional HVAC turns itself on after being off, this sucks up a tremendous amount of energy.

That’s where a mini split’s lower power mode comes into play.

Using the example from above, when the house reaches 72 degrees or thereabouts, the mini split will switch to low power mode.

It’s still on and running but it isn’t actively blasting warm air out of the air-handling units.

Low power mode prevents the mini split from needlessly having to turn on and off, wasting energy to power back on every single time.

If you want to give your mini split a bit of a break, rather than turn it off, just lower the thermostat temperatures in the winter or raise them in the summer. The unit will run less frequently and spend more time in low power mode.