Yes it is attractive provided you take powerful equipment, ie a great brand to have the following characteristics:
COP greater than 3.6 (cops of 4.5 exist => 1000 watt consumed = 4500 watt delivered)
"ecological" gas R 410
silence of the indoor unit less than 29db
"Inverter" operation = soft start and partial load operation.
The most powerful materials I found are Toshiba brand. This brand is not very strong to sell, but innovates a lot. Other brands are waiting for Toshiba's patents to enter the public domain for commercialization.
The technology "inverter" has been patented 25 years ago by toshiba and is massively distributed since 5 years by everyone who presents it as a novelty ...
Today we start to find this technology (inverter) less than 600 € TTC (Chinese hardware). A quick calculation can be seen that this extra, compared to material "all or nothing, not inverter" less than 200 € TTC is amortized in 2ansans barely.
There are pipes with quick couplings that are very easy to install. But most installations are already preloaded and can be commissioned by an individual without specific tools.
As far as I'm concerned, I want to mount a duct unit plus a split in order to manage 2 zones.
My problem is to be able to acquire, as an individual, a branded installation at its TRUE PRICE (the professional purchase price is 2 at 2.5 times the price of Chinese material). But if I can not I will fall back on Chinese.
Lastly, my current heating is city gas. There is no doubt that my heating costs will fall by at least half.
I expect 1000 € gas for 2006 and I estimate 500 € by heating with an inverter, some have calculated 300 € with their simulation software.