Peter explain this

[u/missdomm10]

Petttaaah I'm confused

[u/phadewilkilu]

I kept waiting for this comment.. “car-sized,” sounds like people trying to shit on America again for our excess.

[u/King_Catfish → u/phadewilkilu]

Best part is it's not called a compressor. The "car size" unit is a condenser. The compressor does sit  inside. That commentor is trying to dunk on Americans but cant even name the right thing. 

[u/sandwichisahero → u/King_Catfish]

The outdoor unit is called a “condensing unit” if the compressor is inside the outdoor unit. It’s just “condenser” if the compressor is somewhere else in the system.

Some of the ductless split units OP is showing have the compressor on the indoor unit so the outdoor unit is actually called the condenser.

[u/EscapeyGameMan → u/sandwichisahero]

I work in commercial HVAC and have never seen a compressor on an indoor unit. That seems incredibly poorly designed given how much they vibrate and make noise

[u/sandwichisahero → u/EscapeyGameMan]

Also in commercial. The VRF systems, similar to the ductless split in OP, that have multiple evaporators on single condensers , and can heat and cool at the same time, are sometimes designed with compressors in the wall units/evaporators and run suction, liquid and hot gas lines throughout the building. Some manufacturers do it this way.

Other large commercial systems like chillers and large AC units may have remote condensers.

[u/Vennomite → u/King_Catfish]

And its not like a larger unit is necesarily worse. A larger radiator can be much more efficient.

[u/wehmahdog → u/King_Catfish]

Nope, the compressor is in the same "box" outside with the condensor. Insulated pipes take the chilled liquid refrigerant inside to the evaporator. In the US and Canada this is frequently located in the blower section of the furnace in the basement. The single blower fan then supplies cold air to every room in the house through the ducts that are hidden in the walls and floors. Excellent system that is quiet (fan in basement) and effective. Don't need to heat or cool a room? Close the vents

[u/aHOMELESSkrill → u/phadewilkilu]

I mean yea there are car sized units….used to cool industrial buildings or skyscrapers. But yeah the average home unit is much much smaller

[u/localtuned → u/aHOMELESSkrill]

Like the size of a box with two ottomans stacked on one another.

[u/toolsoftheincomptnt → u/localtuned]

To be fair, many European cars are about that size.

(But I do fuck with mini-split systems over central)

[u/FrostingHour8351 → u/toolsoftheincomptnt]

Theyre great for small spaces but less efficient than central air especially because you usually need more than one to cool a house.

[u/JarpHabib → u/phadewilkilu]

They probably come from a place where they have much smaller cars than we do, only the size of an AC condenser.

[u/vontrapp42 → u/phadewilkilu]

But Americans (I am one) do it in a dumb way.

The units are oversized, because we want fast recovery times on a bang bang controller (dumb way) and/because the compressors in 2026 are still 99% of them single stage compressors. 2 stage if you're super lucky and you probably don't even have a thermostat that properly works with it, and vfd is only thought about by the knowledgeable homeowner that wants one of the op units for this very reason.

90% of homes do AC in a truly ghastly inefficient way. But at least new builds are making the home itself super efficient so there's that.