Ductless mini splits in Leesburg.

The Town’s design guidelines for the Old and Historic District list the styles standing there, from eighteenth-century vernacular and Federal houses through Victorian, Craftsman and Colonial Revival ones up to about 1940. All of them went up before central air. Fewer than one home in twenty in town predates 1960, and cooling usually reached those houses late, by window unit or by ducts squeezed through closets. A mini split puts a head on an inside wall and runs a thin refrigerant line out, with no duct to thread through plaster.

The outdoor half is what the Town looks at. Its guidelines put mechanical units at the side or rear, screened from the street with plantings or fencing, consolidated in one location when possible, with utility lines underground wherever they can go. For a downtown house that usually argues for one multi-zone outdoor unit at the back, two zones at $11,000 to $15,000, over a separate unit for every room. Any exterior alteration in the district needs a Certificate of Appropriateness, so take the plan to preservation staff before setting an install date.

Outside downtown, the median owner home in town is from 1996, usually built with a duct to every room on the plans. There a mini split is mostly for space added since: a basement finished out, an addition off the back, a sunroom. The Town wants its zoning permit for a basement finish or an addition before Loudoun County will issue the building permit, so if a head belongs in the project, put it on those plans from the start.

Lansdowne is close to four in ten condos and about a quarter townhouses. In a condo, the outdoor unit needs a spot the association approves. In a townhouse, a top-floor bedroom that runs warm all summer is the likely candidate.