Central AC / Mini-splits in rental units

[Michael Wolffs]

I'm in the process of rehabbing a three unit building In Jersey City, NJ.  I'm redoing the heating system, so that each unit pays it's own heating bill.  I was not planning on providing air conditioning.  I was planning to put properly wired outlets near a window in each room, so that the tenants could buy and use their own ACs.

Talking to a local landlord, he suggested I put in central AC.  This would obviously be expensive, but also a marketable feature.  The flip side, besides the cost to install, is the cost to maintain (the tenants would pay to run it on their own electric bills.)  Obviously, it's something else to break and need fixing.

If I were to do this, I was thinking about how.  I'm wondering if it would be better to do split ductless units vs convertional ducted AC.  I'm not sure how much different the installation costs would be. 

And here's where the train of thought runs right off the tracks.  I'm about to get to the point of replacing the hot water heating system, with a separate gas boiler for each unit.  If I do the central AC, I could run the heat as reverse cycle AC.  This makes the heat electric (not cheap.)   Also, this is northern NJ.  Temperatures in the 20's or below are far from unheard of.  I don't thing the reverse cycle AC handles this too well, and uses a back up resistance heating mode.  So is this a silly idea, and I should stay with the gas boilers for heat?

Let me know what everyone thinks about all of this.

[Raj Gandhi]

In my opinion, everyone expects AC these days. Five years from now it will be more so.

I added a mini-split as part of a recent addition.  It was about the same price as forced-air heat but saved me space I didn't have for duct work.  In hindsight, I should have somehow made space for ductwork.  The mini-split required significant labor from the electrician and the HVAC guy because of the exterior AC unit.

A new, forced-air furnace just cost me $2400 installed.  Existing duct work and AC were unaffected.  What kind of cost are you looking at with your (seemingly exotic) systems?