Snow Roof frame work
 

Made from 1.25" PVC. Some very strong stuff.. Unless you don't glue it..
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...r/NCL/F121.jpg
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...r/NCL/F122.jpg
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...r/NCL/F124.jpg

The plan is to cover the top with some white PALRUF
PALRUF® - Corrugated PVC Sheet
I have one sheet, but need to pick up one more and some of their mounting gizmos.

White Sidewalls:
I'm considering placing 24"x44" panels of plastic (siding or corplas), down
low on each side, to keep the snow drifts from drifting into the sides..

Any suggestions?


After I figure out where I want the feet to rest, I'll drive some square steel
'rods' into the ground, and the 'legs' will slip over the steel..
Hopefully, keeping the wind from taking the whole thing out to US-95,
where it would be hit by a 16 wheeler! :eek:

Looks like the heat pump has plenty of breathing room for fresh air...

Have you dressed the drip tube so the water will flow away from the slab?

In cooling mode, water will come from the drip tube, in heating mode, water will come from the bottom of the outside unit.

On my unit, I didn't use the rigid cover for the line set. Didn't know they were available. But I did wrap the line set in two layers of foam tape to prevent heat loss. Your rigid cover probably serves the same purpose.

Regards,

-AC_Hacker

The water from the drip tube shouldn't be a problem. If it is, I'll add on a little extension.
The slab is angled down away from the house and towards the right hand corner.

I've been thinking about the best way to add some insulation to the lineset,
but right now, I would like to just get it working before the snow starts up.

Did you have any problems with snow going into the air-intake of your Sanyo last winter?
And did you take any precautions during heavy snow storms?
I'm thinking of shutting mine off when it's really coming down.

A nice sunny day was just about wasted. Then, just before 5PM when it was too cold and dark, to do any outdoor work..

The mailman came slowly up the road and dropped off a crushed package!
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...L/vacmeter.jpg

It looks pretty good. I tested it a little and got down to about 250 Microns..
Changed the oil (messy) and now I'm all set to do the vacuuming!

My target is to get the lineset (and indoor coil) down to about 100 microns.
The manual says the idea pressure is "10 mmHg abs". Isn't that 10,000 microns?
Maybe 300-400 microns is a more reasonable goal? :D

~~~

Dang!

The weather doesn't look so good..
High: 46°F RealFeel®: 33°F Mostly cloudy, breezy and chilly with a passing shower..

Maybe I should wait until Sunday.?. Mostly sunny and pleasant. High: 57 °F

If your micron gauge didn't come with one, might want to make a copper "T" and get your micron gauge real close to your heat pump (first in line), that should give you a better reading. Also, just a tiny bit of your assembly lube on the flare faces and threads throughout...

Best Regards,

-AC_Hacker

Thanks for the tip on the lube. That's got to help.

It came with a 'T', but one side off the top is the wrong sex to fit onto the service port.
It should have been male and female.

What would be useful is a real short hose, instead of these 6 footers.

I did a little experimenting and I think this might work..

Using two hoses with the new gauge in the middle,
between the pump and the AC. One cut-off valve at the service port
and one at the gauge.

Pump>]----------Xg-[<gauge>]-----------Xs-[<Service port

Process:
Start with cut-offs turned off.

1. Pump on.
2. Open both (g&s)cut-offs.
3. Wait for pressure to get low. (record value).
4. Close both cut-offs.
5. Pump off.
6. Wait a few minutes. Vapor out-gassing.?.
7. Pump on.
8. Open g cut-off.
9. When pressure is back to recorded value in step #3, open s cut-off.
10. Loop back to step #3.

I hope to get a little lower pressure on each loop.
If the pressure inside the lineset isn't holding low after a bunch of loops,
it's going to be very noticeable on step #9. There will be a big change on the gauge.

When the pump is at it's limit (no more vacuum to be had) and I'm happy the lineset is holding the vacuum,
that might be a good time to call in the allen wrench expert.. :)


Getting it down to 50 or 100 microns would be nice, but I think
anything around 500 is going to do the job just fine.

The Mr. Slim manual says 1000 microns (1 Torr) is their target.
That should be easy to beat..

Evacuation Day
 

Well, that idea didn't work! I found that turning either of the cut-off valves
would let in a little air and drop the vacuum by at least 100 microns.
Much of the time it was more. Even just turning one a tenth of a turn would
let in some air. Flipping those things off and on was a no-go.

So, after taking the nitrogen pressure testing into consideration, we decided
it would be best to do just one long run and shoot for the best pressure.
That ended up being just under 200 microns. That was the point where
the meter stabilized and was only going down about 1 micron every 10 minutes.
The red Stable LED was on.

This is the setup..
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...CL/vacday1.jpg


Getting close to 200!
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...CL/vacday2.jpg


It's 46.3 outdoors and it's 74 in here! :thumbup:
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...CL/vacday3.jpg

My wife thinks it's great.. :D

I think it's great too!

Good job of installation, and good job of documenting the process.

So now you have pretty much all the tools you need to do some interesting vapor-compression hacking, certainly the most expensive tools.

So when the POO wears off (POO = Pride Of Ownership), you might keep your eyes open for an air conditioner or a de-humidifier for some experimentation...

Congratulations,

-AC_Hacker

Thanks!
I was just outside taking a picture and the fan stopped completely.
It's set for 72 and Quite mode. When I came back in, the inside unit
fan was running so slowly, I could not hear it!
I could barely feel a light air flow from the unit!
This has to be the king of bedroom ACs.. :)

Here's the pic:

The fan was turning over real slow (and quite) before it went off.
The outdoor temperature is actually 46.2 deg F.
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...46outdoors.jpg

After this heating season it would be very interesting to see an ROI on the unit. Any idea what you spent on this project in total?

Approximate Cost
 

Sanyo $2,111
SlimDuct $160
Pump $141
Gauge $132
Manifold $60
Plus Miscellaneous stuff, brings the total up to around $2,600
give or take $100.00 :p

If I wanted to, I might be able to toss the 70mm hole saw in with the
AC tools and sell it all as a Mini-split Installer Kit.. :rolleyes: Who knows?

Hehehe! My wife went out.. The heat is now 74 and I'm loving it!
Feel like I'm back home in Texas! (It's 80 in the hallway)!

Edit:
I've been sitting around watching TV this evening and goofing with the new Sanyo.
This machine is great! It's hardly running at all and heating the whole house.
I goosed it up to 74 and it went up to 72 back in the den (our coldest room) pretty quick.

I've found that placement of the remote (/portable thermostat) is important for
hitting your target temperature, in a selected area.
Also important is the manual aiming of the left-right vent direction vanes.
When both are aligned to shoot air down the hall, my PC room and the bedrooms get more heat than I expected.
This will be a real night-time power saver, since heat delivery to the sleeping areas is so effective.
One thing I didn't expect, is a warmer Bathroom! (The oil heat in there is pretty poor).

I hope, my baseboard forced hot-water (oil-fired) system is not going to see much use this winter.
Of course it will have to get used on those extra cold nights. I hope we don't have that many!


Cheers,
Rich

For even higher efficiency, turn it down to 65-68F or so once you finish the burn-in and performance tests.

Does the quiet mode save energy ?
 

Maybe this weekend I can do some wattage measurements.
If it's not too cold for me to stand outdoors and watch the meter.
IIRC, every time the meter LCD blinks, means one 1 watt second.

I want to see what the wattage is for full, medium and low Heating operations.
That way, I'll have some idea of usage before my bill comes in..

Tonight, I'm checking out using the on-board thermistor (indoor unit), instead of using
the sensor inside the remote control.. So far, it seems okay..

I've a question for you Sanyo owners, :) Does the quiet mode save energy ?
I wonder if there is a bad trade-off running the inside fan at such a low speed?
Does that mean the compressor and outdoor fan motor have to do more work?
Because the inside fan is loafing along?

I don't know.

I've been so pleased with the overall performance that I have not gone into the minutiae.

I'll be very interested to see what you come up with.

Regards,

-AC_Hacker

Every spec I've seen for a fan shows that they decrease with efficiency as their speed increases. So, at least for the fans I'd say that it is more efficient at a lower speed.

I'm not sure about the compressor, but I'd imagine it is similar. Less heat build up from moving parts = higher efficiency, right? But, thats more of a guess.

The reason I'm questioning the wisdom of quiet mode is because
I wonder if it might be upsetting the balance of the heat exchange loop.

To get the near the same BTUs out of the inside unit, at very low fan speeds,
Seems like it's going to require Hotter R410A to be pumped inside.
How do we get hotter refrigerant? By sucking more heat out of the outdoor air.
That is done by a faster running compressor and outdoor fan..?.

So, maybe the firmware of the Sanyo (when fan speed is set to Auto),
maximizes the transfer of outdoor air-heat to indoor air-heat.?.

Maybe letting it do it's own thing (auto-fan) is more efficient?

Is using quiet mode sorta like driving my 6 speed auto transmission Ford around town using L ow gear?

11/07/09 log notes
 

Using the built in sensor didn't work so well.
Switched back to the remote sensor.
It seems this unit is made for a Big Room, not a whole house.

I've found that setting the remote to 70 degrees and
placing the remote in the living room works very well.
The living room stays dead on 70.. (If the remote not in the air stream).

But, Over-shoot in some areas can be a problem.
To make the Sanyo hit a certain temperature in a certain room,
I can compensate by adjusting the vent angle and remote Temp setting.
Of course an IR remote Repeater would solve the 'room' problem,
but where's the fun in that? :rolleyes:

For now, I placed the remote in the hall (on top of the existing T-stat)
and ended up using 66 degs for the sleeping set-back.
Woke up this AM and it was 68 in the bedroom and 70 in the hallway. Nice!
The outside temps last night were in the high 20s and I believe the Sanyo never noticed.. :)
It's so quite, I would not be able to tell if the outdoor unit was running real fast or not.

Need a 230V power usage monitor.. Otherwise, I'm not going to know
at what temperatures using the oil heat becomes cheaper..
(Because I'm not going outside to watch the meter when it's 16 degrees)!
I wonder if I could get a T.E.D. for Christmas? And put it on those two
new 230V wires in the breaker box?? :D
So far, we have used Zero gallons of oil for heating. (Hot water only)..

We like it!!

BTU/square feet...
 

Just out of curiosity, how many square feet are you heating with your unit?

As I recall., it's a 24,000 BTU model, right?

Regards,

-AC_Hacker

Ah, I see your point about the balancing and the increasing temperatures to the indoor heat exchanger. It will be interesting to see what is most efficient. I'd imagine compressor energy usage massivly trumps fan energy usage. So, it might be most efficient to have that thing blasting away? Let us know!

Not counting the basement, the house has about 975 square feet.
When you count the add-on-den (288 sq ft) the total is 1263 square feet.
During sleeping hours, the den doors are shut.

Closing the doors of the two small bedrooms (one is my PC room),
means we don't have to heat another 128 sq ft..
975 - 128 = 847 sq ft of heating space during sleeping hours.

So, this 24,000 BTU Sanyo (30,000 heating) should be able to do the job.. :thumbup:

When the weather isn't too cold (like this week), this unit can easily heat the whole 1263 sq ft.

~~~
Now, the oil burner seems to be coming on once about every 8 to 12 hours.
It takes about 20 minutes to come up to temperature.

Besides the cost of oil, I think there is an extra benefit with the Sanyo.
When the oil burner is running, it's sucking many cubic feet of cold air,
inside our house!

The Sanyo, warms the existing air inside the house..

~~~
FULL POWER:
When it really gets cold, the oil burner normally runs a lot of hours per day..
At 1 GPH, it's buring about $2.50 in oil and electrical power per-hour.

If the Sanyo runs at full power, using 2.5 KW, at 20 cents a KWh,
that's about 50 cents an hour.

I'm retiring these guys.. (Who cost about 75 cents an hour to run)!
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...CL/75cents.jpg
But, have served us well during times when it was not yet cold enough to turn on the oil heat.
And also helped out with the den where the baseboard output is undersized for the room.

Install a heavy duty dimmer in series with the heating elements of one of the heaters. Use it for local heating (next to you) so you can turn the central heat down even more. The efficiency gain from heating only what you really need to are very significant.

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...L/poweruse.jpg

290 watts into the Sanyo will pump in 4,400 BTUh.
290 watts into a space heater converts to 989.5 BTUh.

Once the living areas are warmed up, it might only take 4,400 to 6,000 BTUh to maintain 70 degs..

So, if two people living here both needed space heaters, it might not be all that efficient.

Snow Roof install day
 

Wow! It's 67 deg out there today..

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...r/NCL/F143.jpg

Perfect weather for a roofing job... Now, I'm ready for the snow! :eek:
I came back inside and the house was so warm, I did a little AC testing.
Cooled things off real fast!!
The legs are off kilter, because when I drove the anchor pegs, I hit rocks!
There are rocks the size of watermelons just 10 or 12 inches under the ground here!
The pegs all ended up going into the wrong spot or at an angle!
Heck, that might hold it down better in the wind.?.
The last step was to drill a hole into the legs (and into the pegs), just
a few inches above the ground, and install a screw to keep the
whole thing from pulling a Wizard of Oz trick..

No side-walls yet.. (To block snow drifts coming in from the sides).
I'm going to wait a while before insulating the line-set valves, I want to
make absolutely sure that no refrigerant or oil is leaking from the connections.
(I saw this happen on a poorly installed AC-only unit at work. 24KS72).


The connection lube/sealant that I used is made of the same stuff that's
used for AC lube, and I've been trying to wipe off any over-flow, so
I can properly inspect for leakage. If clean, in a few days, I'll wrap it up
with insulating tape etc.

For now, I've taped up some foam into a little boot that kinda fits over the valves..
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...r/NCL/F145.jpg
After I have some good insulation installed, I think about installing the sidewalls/snowdrift shields.

Edit: 11/28/09 Installed insulation over line-set valves.


Before pic (without removable cover).
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...r/NCL/F169.jpg

After insulating and tape up.
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...r/NCL/F170.jpg

About a year ago, an auto parts store about a block and a half from here had its ground-mounted heat pump stolen for the copper. I heard similar tales of woe from the neighborhood HVAC tech. So when I was looking for the right spot for mine, I thought hard about putting the unit in the back yard,out of sight, but I didn't like the idea of a long line set. On hind-sight a front location was also a good idea because the front yard is always warmer than the back by about 4 degrees, due to the fact that the backyard is perpetually in deep shade and even the earth temp, summer & winter is 4 degrees cooler... good for hot summer days, good for AC, less so for heating.

So here is my Sanyo, installed right in front of my house.


Stealthy, eh?

Regards,

-AC_Hacker

Good Camo.. Looks like a fern to me, and I've got a sharp eye!


I have one security light in the back of the lane between the house and garage.
You can see it on the upper right side of this picture.
It's right under the illegal alien(?) roofer.. :confused:
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1.../rooferguy.jpg

Just under that light is an 18,000 BTU AC.. Humm, that makes 4 extra ACs that
I have floating around.. Oh, I forgot about the big one at my kid's house..


Anyways, I think a second security light on the garage wall, just up and
forward of that little side door, might be good to have..

That seems to be a good spot to light up, when I have to shovel that alley in the winter time.
And, I'll be keeping the snow away from the Sanyo this winter.. :thumbup:

I worry about vandalism more than copper stealer. But, just about every
other house on the street has a big fat central-air AC sitting near their chimney.
And, so far their hasn't been any problems. There are a lot of retired people
on this street and 95% of the traffic is residents. Pretty low risk here.

Put locks on the breaker boxes. Either the thief will give up and look for one that is less secure or try to steal it with power on and get zapped.

Yeah, I've been thinking about that one. I wonder if it's legal in this city.?.
Right now, you will need a knife or wirecutters to cut a cable tie..

I'll have to check with the city inspector to see if it's okay to lock it up.

-AC_Hacker

P.S.: Landscaping does have it's advantages... You might ask the "illegal alien(?) roofer" who was roofing your house, if he knows any body who does landscaping, he surely does. They will probably send a portion of the money that you pay them, back to their home country, where is is badly needed. It seems that Americans who have insisted in driving inconsionably large vehicles, have created a huge demand for fuel, which is in declining global supply, which has forced congress to enact legislation that favors the conversion of food crops (corn in particular) into motor fuel. This has had global implications, since corn is a commodity traded on the international market. The global implications are especially felt by impoverished people for whom corn makes up a large part of their diet. Many of these families can no longer afford their basic food, just so that we can drive huge vehicles. Faced with personal starvation, or starvation of their children, many people are willing to risk death to come to the US to work. Possibly planting shrubbery around your Sanyo.

Isn't it illegal to carry nail clippers now? IIRC, an airline pilot was kicked off his flight
because he wanted his nail clippers in his carry-on..
You can be sure nail clippers aren't allowed in Massachusetts schools..

I'm not sure if those roofers were illegals, but when the boss talks to them really loudly,
that's one sure sign they might now understand English too well. ;)
At least they don't have to pay any payroll taxes..

Don't get me started on the Ethanol scam. It makes me very angry just thinking about it.


Anyways, the cable tie is there in case some 6 year old comes by and wants
to see if there is anything interesting inside that box.
I'm checking the local code about the locking the box now, no reply yet.

The new motion sensor security light has been installed and now both ends of the area are covered.
You could make movies out there at night.. :cool:

Nice Brass Master padlock has been installed on the disconnect box!
I was worried about that shorting bar, since I've never seen this particular power
disconnect box at my local stores.. If the shorter went missing, I would be SOL.

~~~

My next project is to install an Energy Monitor. I hope to be able to measure
the wattage being used at different outdoor temperatures.

That should help me determine at what outdoor temperatures would it
be more efficient to burn oil for heating. (If any).

I've decided to use the Efergy Elite Wireless Energy Saving Monitor.
efergy.com | elite

The unit (a Whole house monitor from the UK) is equipped with a non-electrical-contact
current probe that measures magnetic flux from one of the 230vac
lines going into the Sanyo. It just clips over the wire.
http://www.electricity-monitor.com/i...01_300_262.JPG
(Looks a bit like this one, but it's black and a bit thinner).
Hey! I found a pic of one!
http://www.allthingsgreen.net/market...ite-image1.jpg
It plugs into a small transmitter that sends signals upstairs to the
receiver/display unit. (The Xmitter looks like a bar of soap)!

http://www.laymansreviews.com/assets...fergyElite.jpg

I'll have to add a spacer sleeve around the wire inside the breaker box,
to insure the probe snaps into a good fixed position on the wire.
Then, I'll turn off everything but the Sanyo, measure the wattage using
the electric company meter and calibrate the Elite unit to the meter,
using the voltage select function in the setup menu.

Such a simple plan.. What could go wrong.?. :rolleyes:

Cheers,
Rich

Mini Spliy Breakeven Analysis
 

I've been so pleased with my mini split that I have considered getting one for infrequently used areas, such as the basement. I checked some listing on ebay and was amazed at how inexpensive some of the inverter type units are. Of course, the cheaper one (Shinco) has a much lower HSPF (Heating Season Performance Factor) than the most efficiently engineered model (Fujitsu Halcyon).

Thinking about it was making my head tired, so I made a breakeven spreadsheet (see attached) to compare several different models, and also have a column for good old resistance electrical heating.

I compared all units at 3/4 Ton (9,000 BTU/hr output) and all prices include ALL parts & shipping.


To simplify things, I "flattened" all months by assuming the same amount of heating for each month (crazy me), which of course is unrealistic. I suppose I could include a sine function in the formulas that would simulate that. I could also have included real historical data, such as Daox,and Piwoslaw are recording.

But even with these shortcomings, it is interesting what an improvement a mini split is over resistance heating, unless the time you plan to spend in a location is very short.

Also, with all the different performance ratings, mini split's performance seems to track mored or less as a family.

Interesting too, how economically advantageous the cheapest (Shinco) is at the beginning of its service life, and how long that advantage is mantained.

For serious primary use, the higher efficiency units, such as Xringer's Sanyo, the Mitsubishi and the Fujitsu are better choices, but for shorter planned service life, or for occational use, an inexpensive heat pump has obvious advantages.


But if we look at the pounds of CO2 per month generated, it can give one pause...


Best Regards,

-AC_Hacker


By the way, I found the average national electric rate here:

Electric Power Monthly - Average Retail Price of Electricity to Ultimate Customers by End-Use Sector, by State


...and the kW-hr to pounds of CO2 conversion factor here:

www1.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/pdfs/doewater-ornl-111997.pdf

I was looking at that pdf and went on to find this stuff..
kwhr excel Download

The House Energy Audit 2 My Name file is pretty nice.
Tells you a lot of good info, Nice pie chart and bars too. But you need a KillaWatt to use it..

We do have some local nukes making power, so I'm not real sure what the
CO2 per kWh is for my area. I'll have to find out, so I can program the cf
into my new power monitor. It will keep a running tally of CO2 produced.

I'm not sure, but I have a feeling that using the Sanyo for heating,
will cause less CO2 than the old oil burner. That remains to be learned.

One of the main reasons I wanted to try using the Sanyo for supplemental
space heating was because of the volatility of home heating oil prices.

U.S. retail heating oil price up for 5th week: Government | Reuters

AFP: Oil price 'could overheat, cooling global recovery'


Just maybe, in areas where it's not bitterly cold in the winters, this Sanyo
might be the next best thing to using a geothermal heat pump.

Once I start measuring the power usage, I'll post the kWh data
here for everyone's enlightenment.

If it turns out that heating with the Sanyo is more economical than oil heat,
and this holds true even during colder months of Jan & Feb, we just might
use the Sanyo as our main heating system with the oil as backup.
So far, casual testing has been very positive.


Cheers,
Rich

PS:
Someone is selling an Oil Burner just like mine on Ebay!
HS TARM OT-35 Wood/Coal Boiler with oil back up - eBay (item 260501309929 end time Nov-13-09 16:41:06 PST)

Maybe someday I can get $1,695 for mine!

I found a Pounds of CO2 per kWh link..

How clean is the electricity I use? - Power Profiler | Clean Energy | US EPA

Each area is different (some have more wind power), so you need to specify
where you live and plug in the amount of kWh you use.. I used 500 a month.
And it spits out your CO2 production.



5,925 pounds of carbon dioxide

Note: Your annual emissions include a grid region specific adjustment for line losses of 6.41 percent.

Once I get the power monitor installed and log some usage for the next
few months, I should have a good idea of pounds of CO2 made by the Sanyo.
Then, I'll compare that to the CO2 made from using my oil burner,
to make the same amount of BTUs.

Thinking About Environment
 

You are quite right, but what I was trying to show with the two graphs is that a breakeven analysis is very useful, but the most favorable choice regarding cost, and the most favorable choice regarding environmental impact may be entirely different.

Regards,

-AC_Hacker

I wasn't thinking about break-even when I decided to buy a Sanyo.
I'm kinda like those guys that buys a Prius and not worry about when,
the better gas mileage pays for the extra cost of the car.
They just want it to be green or they love gismos.

My motivation is a little different, It's more like being prepared.
Wanting to stay warm, if the oil man is a no-show or if oil shoots up to $9 a gallon.

Last year, we got a back-up 5KW generator, just in case of power failure.
It's hard to stay warm when the power goes out for a few days.
Hopefully, we will never have to use it. All of out back-outs lately have been brief.

And, of course I love trying out new stuff! This technology isn't really new,
it's just new to me. The 24KHS72 has just completed it's 3rd summer in the USA.

~~~

Anyways, I'm all eager to install the power monitor and see whats watt.. ;)
This evening I counted the LCD flashes and saw my home was using 600 Wh.
I turned on the Sanyo, asked for 76 degrees and measured 2340 Wh.
2340 - 600 = 1740 Wh or 1.74kWh or about 35 cents and hour.

If I turn off the rest of the house, I should be able to easily calibrate
the new monitor using the meter.

The power meter came in today. It took just about 2 weeks from England.

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...r/NCL/F151.jpg

It was packed well and in good shape. Easy to install. Harder to calibrate.

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...r/NCL/F160.jpg

8 pulses on the house meter every 60 seconds= 480 Wh.
Setting the AC to 240 volts (in the setup menu) got me close very to 480W.

Right now, the Sanyo is drifting between 470 & 490 watts for a while, then
dropping down to 30 watts for a while and then kicking back up to 480 again.

The calibration might be a tad off, because it's hard to watch two displays
while counting dots.. Needed to watch the 480 watts, to make sure it didn't
drop to 30 for half my 60 second count.. I did the count and checked it
against the meter about a dozen times before I was happy with the setting.

I've got the transmitter set for it's fastest transmit rate (every 6 seconds),
so I can see all the little ups & downs..

After it runs for a day or two, it should give more accurate predictions
of the daily average kWh & cost etc.

I'll start posting the data soon. It looks like the temperatures are going
down into the 20s and teens as December kicks in..

Edit:
In case anyone is interested in one of these Elite units, they are about $80 shipped
and take 1 to 2 weeks to get here from the UK. Mine took two weeks.

Here's the link:
Efergy Elite Wireless Energy Saving Monitor Smart Meter - eBay (item 140305060798 end time Dec-27-09 10:16:58 PST)

I'm glad to hear its working out well so far. Keep us updated on this. A 240V meter would be great to have.

The menu allows you to select from 110 to 400 volts in increments of
5 and 10 volts. It's 5 when you are near the standard (like 115, 225)voltage ranges,
but is 10 volt increments out of the standard range like 370-380-390-400. It's not a bad way to tweak it into cal..
I just wish I had a steady load to set it up with.

I'm not sure what the transmitter is doing when you change the transmit rate (6, 12 or 18 seconds).
Is that changing the sample rate?
Does the transmitter save usage data during the time between transmissions?
In case there were changes during the interval??

Edit:
Just got a reply back from Efergy ltd (in England)..
"The transmitter does not store information, it samples whatever the emf is
and passing through the current transformer at the second it TXs. "

So, I'll be using the 6 second sample rate for best accuracy. (Shorter battery life).
The next set of AA cells I use will be 2000 mAh Nimh cells.

Sanyo works down to 28.8 degrees!
 

Edit: Dec 6 2009, our first Sanyo snow shower.
It snowed a couple of inches last night. This morning, it was 29 degrees outside,
and the Sanyo was using a little more power. But after an hour of heating,
it's usage is back to 470 watts.

At about 7AM the power was up to about 1,800 watts and no warm air
was coming out.?. I looked out and saw frost on the air input.
It was a Defrost Cycle! I lased the inside unit and it was in the high 40s! (fan off).
There was water under the outdoor unit (fan on)..
Lasted a few minutes and went back to regular heating mode.


The little snow roof is working just fine.
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...r/NCL/A011.jpg

Edit 11:30 AM 12/06/09
It's warmed up to 35 and more ice is forming on the air-intake.
Might be due to the melting/evaporation of the sidewalks and driveway.

Left side:
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...r/NCL/A012.jpg

Back side:
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...r/NCL/A017.jpg

Ran in cooling mode for a little while and powered off, to see if a manual Defrost is possible.

Note: The heating function didn't seem to be affected by this amount of frost.
But, it's hard to say if it took longer to drop into the low usage 480watt mode..

Elite metering Cost data
 

Disclaimer:
I won't know how accurate the Elite power measurements are, until I get my bill after a month of heating with the Sanyo.

~ 11/26/09 4.86 kWh ($0.97) Average outdoors 44 degrees. Heat was setback to 66 between 12:00 & 19:00
(Had to go eat some turkey).

~ 11/27/09 6.69 kWh ($1.34) Average outdoors was 43 degrees and raining. Heat indoors was 70-72 70% of the day.
A month of days like this, would add about $40 to our bill.

~ 11/28/09 6.60 kWh ($1.32) Average outdoors was 45 degrees, with a little sun in the afternoon. Heat indoors was 70-72 during waking hours.

~ 11/29/09 6.49 kWh ($1.30) Average outdoors was 46 degrees, with some sun in AM and PM. Heat indoors was 70-72 during waking hours.

~ 11/30/09 6.55 kWh ($1.31) Average outdoors was 47 degrees, rainy day no sun to speak of. Did some high-heat testing. Got the main living area up to about 80 :eek:

The Sanyo has been running almost non-stop for about 25 days now,
and it added about $33 to our bill. Had we used the oil heat,
just burning 2 gallons a day, at $2.60 a gallon..?.


Dec 3, 2009
Notes regarding November usage:
We just paid our bill. The Sanyo startup was on Nov, 5. The meter was read on Nov, 21.
That adds up to about 17 days of charges from the Sanyo.

Nov 09~ 632 kWh (51 deg ave) (Not much use of little space heaters and 17 days of Sanyo)
Oct 09~ 638 kWh (56 deg ave) (Some use of little space heaters).
Nov 08~ 859 kWh (49 deg ave) (little space heaters)!

So, November wasn't too bad. Used less than last month and a lot less than last year (on Nov).

Last December we used about 830 kWh. We were burning oil and kWh with the space heaters.
It will be interesting to see what we use this December.. I'm shooting for less than last year's 830 Kwh..