When There's No Room for an Indoor Air Handler
Some homes simply weren't built with a place to put an indoor air handler. Mobile and manufactured homes, condos, and single-story houses on a slab foundation in South Valley, NM often have no attic or basement to house one, which is exactly the problem a package unit solves - the compressor, coil, and blower all live in one outdoor cabinet, connected to the home's ductwork through an exterior wall or roof penetration rather than an indoor closet or attic platform that doesn't exist.
What's Involved in a Package Unit Install
Because everything lives in a single outdoor cabinet, the installation process differs from a split system in a few specific ways:
- Pad or roof-curb preparation, depending on whether the unit sits at ground level or on the roof
- Ductwork connection point sealed and insulated where it meets the exterior wall or roof
- Electrical and gas connections (for gas/electric package units) run to a single outdoor location instead of split between indoor and outdoor equipment
- Full commissioning including airflow testing through the existing duct run to confirm even distribution
Package units are available in straight electric-cooling-only, heat pump, and gas/electric combination configurations, so the same install path works whether the home needs cooling alone or a combined heating-and-cooling system in one footprint.
Why This Matters for Mobile and Manufactured Homes
Manufactured housing has specific ductwork and structural considerations that differ from site-built homes, and not every crew is equally familiar with them. Package units installed on manufactured homes need connections sized correctly for the home's existing duct trunk, which is typically narrower than a site-built home's ductwork - getting this wrong results in airflow problems that no amount of equipment capacity will fix on its own. Roof-mounted installations on flat-roofed homes also require correct curb sealing to prevent leaks, which is worth confirming with any contractor before work begins, since a poorly sealed curb can cause water damage long after the HVAC work is finished.
Request Package Unit Installation in South Valley, NM
For homes without attic or basement space, Fort Worth AC Repair installs package units throughout South Valley, NM, including manufactured and mobile home-specific configurations and roof-mounted setups, with pad or curb preparation included as part of the estimate.
