[jeff5may]

Time for an update. The unit is still alive and has paid for itself in savings already. I hope it does as well during heating season.

After the initial test, I found the unit a home. My son moved into a (rental) house that has a really bad HVAC system. The original gas furnace went south however long ago, and the owner replaced it with a humongous 4 ton packaged unit. The original gas furnace went underneath the floor and its return vents are in the floor above. Each room has a way too small for it, standard floor register, regardless of room size. The package unit was plumbed to and from where the original gas furnace lived with 14 inch flex hoses and some creative sheet metal work was done to adapt the round hoses to square air boxes. The package unit did a really good job of cooling the crawl space and running the electric bill up.

I got involved when my son complained about his first bill. I paid him a visit, and figured out his problem in under ten minutes. Due to the rental status of the house, the owner would most likely not want to invest a dime improving the existing system, and neither do my son or I. I recommended my hacked unit to run in his kitchen window, rather than crawl around under the floor to get a clue how bad the existing system really is. So we went to the barn, dragged the beast out, hauled it to his house, and installed it in his window. It was hardwired into the electric range outlet.

Before leaving the unit to fend for itself, I set the system charge. On a hot Saturday afternoon in June, I reclaimed the charge. It was in the mid 90's and muggy. I ended up with almost exactly 16 ounces of bbq gas in the system. Head pressure was around 275 psig, any less and the evaporator would take forever to not try to freeze up under humid indoor conditions.

Once my son shut off the central unit and started running the hacked unit, his electric bill plummeted from nearly $400 down to around $150 per month. The last bill was around $100, being shoulder season.

Anyways, heating season is coming. I have yet to see this unit defrosting, so I have told my son to keep an eye on it. I told him to shut it off if the forecast predictions fall below 40. Whether that will happen, i don't know. But if it has problems defrosting I have a feeling i will be the second to know.