Marine design HP
 

Anyone thought of modding one of these for home use? First time I've seen this.

MARINE AIR CONDITIONER WEBASTO FCF 16000 R410A 115/230V | eBay

I couldn't find an installation/tech manual for pump requirments, efficiancy, etc.

Not exactly cheap, but should be easy. I have been looking for basement heat, maybe hack a window unit, 1K gal. solar drainback tank in ground. Found a 20k btu R22 unit for $600 new. But I never have enough hacktime!

But something like this is almost ready-to-go.

If you track back in the manifesto thread, there's a link to a company that sells similiar product, but non-marine. The "marine" part puts a premium on it that is not needed for home use. I believe I commented on it being a good source of HVAC supplies.

If your hack-time is limited, you'd be better off getting a mini-split to heat your basement.

The installation time is low and the efficiency is high, and the price you're considering is about equal.

Xringer has a good thread on the procedure.

Regards,

-AC_Hacker

I picked up an old window unit off a 'free pile' on the curb last year that had a bb gun hole in the condensor, was able to hack it into a HP only unit using propane vs R22 (added a TXV off ebay vs the capillary tube), and works OK as a 1/2T equivalent unit out in the barn to just keep the chill off. Total cost about 50 cents worth of propane and $15 worth of brazing rod and Cu tubing.

You could get a window unit (wall shaker)with heat pump & heating element (for below 39F)..
Amana AH093E35AXAA 9200 BTU Air Conditioner Heat Pump - eBay (item 390292223049 end time Apr-25-11 12:49:31 PDT)

But, like AC_Hacker said, a mini-split should do the trick. The big plus is low power consumption.

Congratulations!
 

Congratulations! This is the kind of success story that I really like to hear... taking a free piece of junk and with some gumption, knowledge and tools, converting that junk into high-efficiency (I consider any COP over 1 to be high efficiency) equipment.

Did you repair the old condenser, or did you substitute/fabricate another one?

How did you deal with the AC cooling control, so it would act as a heating control?

Do you have photos of the tools you used to do the job?

Best Regards,

-AC_Hacker