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Old 01-29-13, 12:10 PM   #208
Xringer
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Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Woburn, MA
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Default It's 44F in the basement!

Here's 28 days of outdoor temperatures.


And it's been 44F in the basement for weeks. The A7 has been working okay,
but that corner of the room feels very cold while the A7 is running.
It's uncomfortable in that area, because of the cold air circulating around.
It 'feels' like 30F over there.. Windchill effects..?.

So, since I sometimes want to work in my shop, I decided to sacrifice a few kWh for comfort,
I set up a 1kW (3400 BTUh) space heater to blow warm air near the A7's air intake.

I used the heaters thermostat and it kinda worked. But would not turn off reliably.
So, I used the A7's 120Vac accessory output to switch on an SSR that's
connected to apply power to space heater.
Right now, the space heater stays on while the A7 is running.

The area is a little more comfortable now.
Last night I serviced the backup battery bank and didn't need a jacket..

I've been trying to track the run-time hours, but it varies widely because of the irregular run times.
Some days, we use a LOT of hot water, making the A7 run 3 to 4 hours.
On other days the run times are 1 to 2 hours..

It's kinda funny being able to hold my hand a foot from the heater and not feel any heat..

~~~
Last week, I added some insulation to the 3 windows on that side of the basement.
Not sure if it's any help, since the upper areas of the concrete walls are ~36F.
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