I don't remember the pricing but we redid our house a year and a half ago and got split units WITH ducts. It's almost like having central. For two floors we have four units (four thermostats). What a difference from the old in the wall/window ac units! May not be too cheap to install and I haven't used it except for a year and a half of summers, but it was well worth it to us. Yes, an AC company did the install. We also had walls and ceilings open. To me they seem to be much cheaper to run. As far as setting the thermostat, we have it running the whole time. We were told it's cheaper than starting and stopping all day. Difficult? Why? They are not pretty quiet. They are totally quiet. The big units are outside in the back. Overall they are great. Tomorrow I'm having a guy come to estimate our basement rooms. Whether to go with in wall or splits, but with those units in each room you see nowadays. Since we only use the basement for guests when they come occasionally we might go with the in wall units. We'll see. Good luck