High velocity mini-duct A/C: an alternative to central a/c and ductless mini a/c?

Does anyone have any experience with high velocity mini-duct HVAC systems? https://www.unicosystem.com/consumer#unico-system

Bob Villa seems to be a big fan. I wonder if it could eliminate the need to rip apart my old house (c. 1880s) to do central a/c and avoid the visual intrusion of ductless mini a/c. 

I'm so not looking forward to another summer of loud, ugly, inefficient window units.

After researching this a few years ago... if, architecturally, this kind of install is a necessity, then use it. That said, its less energy efficient, the ducting is less durable, and the equipment and install are more expensive than a regular flow system. 

We just had central AC installed in our 100+ year old house and I was amazed at how they were able to do it without ‘ripping my house apart’. Not saying it wasn’t messy while they were actually doing the work, but most of each day’s mess was cleaned up at the end of the day and, once they were done, you can hardly tell the difference visually. And we have a finished attic which complicated the project for the upstairs zone. The AC contractors around here know how to deal with these old houses. I was impressed!

sac said:
We just had central AC installed in our 100+ year old house and I was amazed at how they were able to do it without ‘ripping my house apart’. Not saying it wasn’t messy while they were actually doing the work, but most of each day’s mess was cleaned up at the end of the day and, once they were done, you can hardly tell the difference visually. And we have a finished attic which complicated the project for the upstairs zone. The AC contractors around here know how to deal with these old houses. I was impressed!

 We had the same experience.  We thought we didn’t have enough room for ducts but they took up very little useable space.  Hi velocity I supposed to be noisy too. 

Yet another option that we are considering is a hybrid of sorts.  It is a mini split system, but instead of the inside units being on the wall you hide the units and run ducts a few feet into the rooms.  It may work for us because we have several small bedrooms where we would not want wall units that can all be fed from the same hidden unit, running through the joists.

We have a Unico system for about 10 years and love it. Ours is quite quiet. 

Importantly, to me, the holes where the cool air blows out are placed so there are no blasts of cold air blowing directly on us. I've worked in too many Manhattan buildings where the frigid air blows directly on my shoulders when I'm sitting in my office.

jeffl said:

sac said:
We just had central AC installed in our 100+ year old house and I was amazed at how they were able to do it without ‘ripping my house apart’. Not saying it wasn’t messy while they were actually doing the work, but most of each day’s mess was cleaned up at the end of the day and, once they were done, you can hardly tell the difference visually. And we have a finished attic which complicated the project for the upstairs zone. The AC contractors around here know how to deal with these old houses. I was impressed!

 We had the same experience.  We thought we didn’t have enough room for ducts but they took up very little useable space.  Hi velocity I supposed to be noisy too. 

The only usable space taken up in our house was part of an attic closet where the upstairs unit was installed, a corner of our basement for the downstairs unit plus a little basement headroom for one duct. We had expected to lose that entire attic closet plus some other closet spaces for ductwork, but that didn't happen. All ductwork other than in the basement went into unfinished spaces between ceilings and roof.  It was kind of amazing to watch how they put it all in! We have three square holes (now covered by grillwork plates) that they cut to access those spaces and which now just look more or less like vents.  Two of those are hidden (behind storage shelves or in a closet) and one is in the attic stairwell ceiling, so nothing objectionable at all.