Building a house, which A/C do you prefer for the mini splits and best way to do it

If you are purchasing the units yourself you should seek guidance from the sales people.   But generally speaking, you want to be able to control by zone.  Electric is expensive so cooling rooms you aren’t in is expensive and  bad to your carbon footprint.   So a split for each room.  For installation try All Around Air. 340-513-4169

@stjohnjulie great thanks so much!

A split unit for every room and only Mitsubishi as its very widely serviced by almost every AC technician in the territory and super durable with a 10 year warranty.

I will second the recommendation on using Mitsubishi.  I’ve been replacing my older Daikin units with Mitsubishi as they fail.  The performance difference is very noticeable and their reputation for better reliability seems universal.

Make sure to look at the warranty (actually read it). Some units lose their warranty if installed within 1 or 2 miles of the coast...

We went with Gree in a condo several years ago - didn't find out about the warranty issue until after Maria. SEER on our units was about 20, but the higher SEERs from Mitsubishi will save more than their cost over time.

If you have an option, place the outside unit(s) on the side of the house away from the water. Our water side unit was damaged, but the one away from the water (protected by the house and a cover) was OK... Speaking of which, measure your outside unit(s) and have cover(s) made from marine grade vinyl with a strap or some way to hold it on. It should cost a small amount ($100-200) compared to the unit and will help when you are off-island or during a storm. If our water side cover hadn't blown away in Irma, it probably would have survived Maria.

Im told by my home inspector that its a requirement to rinse the outside portion of the a/c units every 6 months.  Most people forget and they rust out in 4 years like clockwork.  He sees it almost every day.

The outdoor unit coils should be periodically cleaned of dirt buildup anyway.

Not only that but the indoor units need to be cleaned once a year or so depending on usage.  Otherwise the drip pans will clog up and start dripping water on your inside floor.  We see that too.  There is quite the procedure to dismantle the unit for that so generally not a homeowner activity. 

There are YouTube videos with step by step instructions for most mini split AC units that show you how to take the unit apart for cleaning. Its not hard.

I bought a mini split cleaning kit from Nelson Cooling that catches the drips and dirt as you clean.

Well worth it.