Quote:
Originally Posted by F357
Well, to me it all just seems too easy. I must be missing something. I could go to Walmart and spend $99 on a brand new air conditioner. I could spend another $100 in random parts from ebay, add a reversing valve to this air conditioner, and have a $900 "heat pump" for $200. Is that incorrect? That would easily pay for itself in the first heating season vs an electric heater!
Even if I didn't have the skills to do this myself, I could spend another $300 paying an HVAC guy to do it for me, and still spend way less.
But even if you get rid of the "heat pump" idea, and simply turn the air conditioner into a dedicated "compressor heater", they should be able to sell those at Walmart for the same $99. Why not? I always thought it was because they didn't work very well when it got cold, but I've disproven that! 
It's funny, this air conditioner is doing a better job of heating this room, than it did cooling it! |
That's what I'm talking about! It can be done! And you can do it!
I didn't even spend that much on the original units. The R22-based units abound on craigs list and bookoo for cheap, and work well when recharged with BBQ propane gas. The new units are all R410a which only really works well with R410a, so you have to reclaim and refill the charge.
The dirt cheap reverse cycle unit I built a few years ago has paid for itself, all the tools I had to collect to fabricate and test it, and bought my kids Christmas presents ever since. It has literally leveled my heating and cooling bills. It uses about the same electrical power as a run of the mill portable, but provides much more heat down into the single digits (Farenheit).