The sun/shade thing has been researched, and shade doesn't matter in summer. The unit is not extracting heat from the sun, but from the air, and the air doesn't really change shade or sun (obviously extremes don't apply). Google for the research. Makes sense when you think about it a bit.


Earthtubes if say you are doing new construction, just cover the whole lot.

Piping air from under deck or similar I think would suffer from similar to the earth tubes. At first startup, you would be drawing different air possibly, as it has sat there, but the constant movement means the air temp would change little on it's path through. (reasonable) Earthtubes help with that, but I think the ground would saturate/stabilize fairly quick unless there was some design and a large amount of land to it.
Lack of snow input could be helpful during those times which are rare overall. I haven't noticed it be an issue if the unit is under a house over hang.

My experience sitting on the stone and concrete front steps on a warm sunny morning,
feeling all the radiated heat around me, makes me think where I'm sitting, wouldn't be
a good location for an outdoor unit on a day when I wanted to cool the house..
But, you are likely correct.. Maybe the sun directly on the unit doesn't have any effect.

During the winter, one would think the sun would help melt the ice on the HX,
but the air temperature is going up when the sun directly on the area..
My outdoor sensor under the deck is out of the direct sunlight, but it always
jumps up when the sun light moves into the general area..
(that's when comparing the sensor under the catwalk, with the 2nd sensor that is
located well away from any change of solar warming).

In the spring time, I've measured the decking at 140 to 160 deg F, while
in direct sunshine. So, I would think that a light (reflective) color on your
outdoor unit might keep the metal case under 100F.. :)

~~

The reason for bringing air from under the deck & den, would be to
get a source of air without snow.. When snow is sucked into the air intake,
it causes the system to use more power and can shut it down, eventually.
So, the goal is clean air.. This video shows the intake, with the fan off..
https://youtu.be/F3dGciqRRCM

Snow is the enemy of the ASHP.. :o When it starts snowing a lot,
I start thinking about a GSHP..

Broke again!
 

The snow storm we had the other day caused a power glitch..
Which I now think was about 1/2 a second long or less. I'm not sure, but I think the den Sanyo was defrosting.
When I went outside to check, the coil was 60% caked with snow and ice.
Somehow the system was damaged and has failed..
Power up shows a flashing 'Operate' LED indicating failure mode.
TED power meter shows zero power used, unless in Fan mode (works nice).

Diagnostic code is S01. Room temp sensor failure (or other sensors?)
or Indoor/Outdoor PCB failure. (Room temp is in the remote control).
I don't think it's the indoor unit (my newest purchase. Less than 4 years ago),
Since it's running the Diagnostics okay. I think these Diag results may be too general..


Today it was 40F, so I removed the top cover of the outdoor unit and checked the power into the unit.
Everything looked fine. The DIY 10A circuit breaker is normal..
But, I could not get the plastic cover off the main controller board,
to see if the was any damage to the PCB or parts.

I cut off the power and left it un-repaired for now.
I'll wait for better weather, so I can remove the snow roof and remove both
the top and front covers, allowing better access to the main PCB and sensor connectors.
Since the outdoor unit stopped drawing crankcase heater current (40w), and its been really cold,
I can assume the main controller PCB isn't pulling in the relay to power the heater..
I do want to measure the Ohms of that heater, in case it's open..
Because, there is a temp sensor on the compressor..
And a smart controller would not fire up the compressor motor,
until the oil had warmed up.. (I would hope)..

I have a 'feeling' the main board's logic has been zapped.. ($1,100).
But, maybe it's the man DC PSU capacitors, which I might be able to replace.
Sometimes when they go bad, they make a mess on the board, or their end caps are puffed out..
Have to wait and see..

Well damn . . . Power surge or just power drop?

Thinking after the fact, would a whole house surge suppressor have been of help to prevent this? Not guilting , but am interested in one of these mini-split units for my shop and we do not have stable power on a coop grid (lots of such "glitches").

The timing of the "glitch" and the outside unit failure just can't be coincidence.

I agree that looking at the DC main caps is a great idea. Easy to unsolder one end of the cap and check it out with a capacitance meter. Or if "puffed out" you have a very visual indication of failure. It is always something.

I had to round up cows today as they found yet another way out . . .

Feel your pain.


Steve

There is a 'whole house surge suppressor' on the Sanyo 240 supply..

I don't know what happened with the power.. I was sitting here reading a webpage,
when the screen went black, all the LEDs went off and came right back on..
When Windows 7 rebooted, firefox opened back up on the page I had been reading!

Lady across the street called me and asked me if my TV was working..
I told her my cable boxes had just finished rebooting (like my router).

The Sanyo in the living room had cycled down normally. (vent shut)
So, I turned off the remote, for a while. In case of more power blinks.

Then, when I went to check the den Sanyo, the vent was still open, with no warm air flowing..
I assumed it had been in defrost when the power blinked. I could see a lot of snow on the side of the HX.

I used the remote to start a manual defrost (cooling mode) set the temp to 20C
(the room was at 21C) and left for 10 minutes. I came back, shut it down,
so the water on the outdoor HX coil would drain down good and left it sit for about 1/2 hour..
Then, when I came back to fire up the unit, it seemed to start up okay.
I had not noticed the operate LED was flashing at 1 HZ.

Walked back into the living room and checked the den TED.. Zero watts!
Came back to the den and saw the flashing.. :confused:
The TEDs didn't register any alarms for HV or KW. Maybe because the failure was so short..

Since spring is near, we should be able to get by until nice weather. I hope.
Then, I may be able to find the problem. Maybe even fix it.
At the same time, I'm going to be looking at those new models, that work down to -20 F... :cool:

If it is 4 years old , check your warranty . We replaced the board on the Friedrich 1 ton unit we installed last spring . The Friedrich has a 5 year warranty .

We had a snow storm about the time the board went out . May have had lightning ? Many people lost power . Ours did not go out , in the night , long enough to disrupt my digital alarm clock . But we could have had surges and spikes .

The schematic shows a surge suppressor built in to the outdoor unit . Thinking about a whole house surge suppressor .

Square D by Schneider Electric Panel Mounted Single Phase Type 1 Surge Protective Device-SDSA1175 - The Home Depot

Any one have any comments on this one ? Would be easy for me to install .

Johnstone warranted our bad board .

Thank you Lord ! :-)

And thank you , Johnstone .

God bless
Wyr

I have a similar surge supressor wired into the disconnect box outside to the minisplit.

I also have a supressor on the main panel

Easy to install

Fuse?
 

Yes, it's almost springtime here in MA.. Actually going to be warm today!

I'm looking at the top of the outdoor PCB and I think that backwards 'Z' on the bottom right (about 2" in from the sides) is a 25A fuse.. It's showing 'open' on the VOM.. Is that really the symbol for a fuse? Or a Zener diode?
I can bend the PCB a little and peek underneath. It looks like an old style glass germanium diode.. I have no idea how to remove the PCB yet..

If that is the fuse, the question is, what caused it to blow? I need to replace it, to see if something down the chain has shorted out..
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1461254130

Diode symbols | schematic symbols

Fuses and electrical protection symbols

Do not know what the backwards Z symbol means ?

God bless
Wyr

Can't say I've ever seen that symbol on a board. Not a fuse or diode symbol that I know of.