Questions about DIY Install of Mini-Splits

[nokiasixteth]

Originally Posted by Xringer

I'm not sure, but I think the insulation on my line-set may have been 100% neoprene.
Anyways, what's in the bag? Is it sheets of neoprene, or tape-like?

I used regular pipe insulation from Lowes, with duct tape over it.
I waited a while before putting it over the fittings, since I wanted
to let the system run a week or two and re-torque the flare nuts.

That neoprene might be the best stuff to wrap your fittings with.
Then tape over it, to keep the water out.

The larger tube tube is the hot one when in heat mode.
If it gets real cold where you live, it should be very well insulated.
If not, many BTUs will be wasted, adding heat to the global warming.
So, think of the baby polar bears, and insulate it to the max.

It really dont get that cold here for long periods . (Usually). This year weve had some strange weather . Cold . And snow.. We rarely ever see snow. So we shut down stuff for snow .
It does do the opposit though. Get pretty hot . Humid hot . Im betting it will do the opposit loose efficiency from not being insulated cooling the air costing me extra money to cool the place.

[Xringer]

My neoprene wet suit actually deteriorated over time. But mostly I got too fat to fit into it.!.
I still use it once in a while. I cut of some to use for insulation or padding.
Actually most of it was used inside a seat cushion I used outdoors.
Anyways, I purchased that wet suit in the summer of 1968.

I was young and dumb.. I figured it would be fun to scuba dive around here.
Had no idea how cold the sea is up here. Nothing at all like Bermuda!

I looked on the web and found some neoprene in rolls that has adhesive on one side.
It's like a big roll of insulating tape. It's not real cheap either..

[Xringer]

Originally Posted by nokiasixteth

It really dont get that cold here for long periods . (Usually). This year weve had some strange weather . Cold . And snow.. We rarely ever see snow. So we shut down stuff for snow .
It does do the opposit though. Get pretty hot . Humid hot . Im betting it will do the opposit loose efficiency from not being insulated cooling the air costing me extra money to cool the place.

Yeah, when cooling, the R410A flows (into the house) as a liquid in the small tube.
Any exposed fittings or tubing will frost up or be covered with condensation.


(See cooling and heating cycle info on the lower right side of the page).

[nokiasixteth]

Im used to the warmth of gulf shores . Im guessin where your at is a lot colder waters. I have two rolls of pipe tape that came with the unit . Ill use it probably if i have enough .


NYLOG GASKET THREAD SEALANT & ASSEMBLY LUBE RT201B
On one of your post i seen you had that comein . Did you put it on your threads and the flares or just the threads ?
Or did you put them on dry

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/geothe...project-8.html

[NiHaoMike]

Originally Posted by nokiasixteth

NYLOG GASKET THREAD SEALANT & ASSEMBLY LUBE RT201B
On one of your post i seen you had that comein . Did you put it on your threads and the flares or just the threads ?
Or did you put them on dry

Put it on both the front and back of the flare. Some of the excess will squeeze out onto the threads, so no need to actually put any on them.

[Xringer]

Originally Posted by nokiasixteth

Im used to the warmth of gulf shores . Im guessin where your at is a lot colder waters. I have two rolls of pipe tape that came with the unit . Ill use it probably if i have enough .


NYLOG GASKET THREAD SEALANT & ASSEMBLY LUBE RT201B
On one of your post i seen you had that comein . Did you put it on your threads and the flares or just the threads ?
Or did you put them on dry

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/geothe...project-8.html

Be sure to take a real close look at your flares before using the NYLOG.
They should be perfect. No splits or cracks.

It's lube. Smear it on the inside and outside of the flare, also on the inside surface of the nut,
where it contacts the flare. Also on the flare 'cones' of the outdoor unit.

You want to compress the flare cleanly and not have the nut bind on the tube.
A bit on the threads, so the nut doesn't bind when you torque it down.

Pressure test it, to be sure everything is tight enough.

[nokiasixteth]

Should be able to get it done this weekend.

[jeff5may]

Originally Posted by nokiasixteth

Should be able to get it done this weekend.

please try to take lots of pics and let others know how the cozy coool unit operates. They don't all do the same thing when powered up, or when you push a button. Good luck, smear nylog all over the fittings, it's just oil. Super expensive air conditioning lucas.

[nokiasixteth]

Everything is ran and all hooked up can take some pictures of it tomar . Onlything now . Run a cover and wrap the lines . Also going to buy some more controll wire so i can run it inside my cover like i want Its not as long as i want . It has on the screen the frequency of the compressor with 5 little lights . So far its stayed around 2 when i turn up temp it goes up.
Like i said if i get 2 or 3 years out of this little unit . Warranty is 3 years on the whole unit . And 5 years on the compressor. Going to put a new post up on here about kozy kool.

[WyrTwister]

Originally Posted by AC_Hacker

The idea here is that the worst case condition is if the compressor rotor locks for some reason like the "compression chamber" is filled with liquid which is incompressible. This can actually happen... it is not an imaginary event.

If your breaker is large, like maybe 30 amps, you would completely fry your compressor... totally dead. Well... the compressor does have a safety thermal switch on top of the unit, but you certainly don't want to rely on that to save your bacon, because it will react much more slowly than a current-driven circuit breaker, and the damage would be done.

So your breaker needs to be SMALLER than the LRA, in this case smaller than 10 amps.

There is probably another number on the compressor that will indicate how many amps are typically drawn during normal operation. That number will be smaller than LRA. So you want your breaker to be LARGER than the normal running amperage, but SMALLER than the LRA.

It's all about protecting your expensive compressor.

-AC

When a conventional compressor ( do not know about the inverter compressors ) , the initial amp draw is the LRA . For that instance , the rotor is not turning . As the rotor starts revolving , it produces counter - EMF in the field coil / coils , which has opposite polarity to the applied voltage / current . This starts to reduce the total amp draw of the compressor motor . This is for AC motors .

The electrical system must " hold in there " at each start .

I always size electrical for max fuse / max HVAC circuit breaker . On the equipment label name plate . That is all I need to know . I never look at LRA . This always works w/o call backs . As long as nothing is shorted , burned up , locked down , etc. in the equipment .

One possible exception is on conventional system ( probably not applicable on mini splits ) is when the home owner has a habit of diddling with the tstat . This can cause the compressor to shut off & quickly turn back on , forcing the compressor to try to start against high head pressure . In this case , I recommend a 5 - 7 minute solid state time delay relay in the 24 VAC coil circuit of the condenser contactor .

God bless
Wyr