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Old 04-25-17, 07:45 AM   #11
jeff5may
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Originally Posted by oil pan 4 View Post
I bought the 2 ton senville inverter split, 20 SEER.
No window unit.
did you get this model: SENA/24HF/Z ?

I'm curious about these units now. The Senville website has none of the usual charts and/or spreadsheets that depict performance. Without comprehensive performance data, how would a competent engineer, architect, or HVAC tech size the unit to the space and heat load? They wouldn't.

Looking straight at their website, the model cited quotes only 3 performance figures: SEER 20, EER 12.5, and HSPF5 8.4. The EER rating and maybe the HSPF5 I could possibly believe, in certain conditions, but I would have a hard time pulling the trigger on a not cheap (relative to window units) system that seems to beg to be mismatched to specific buildings. Yes, I know they are priced hundreds of dollars cheaper than established brands of similar rating.

I hope it serves you well. Please follow up on this unit if you can. Given the lack of real-world performance data, your information would help fill in the blanks for many inquiring minds. Not to mention the other unit of the same brand you already operate.

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Old 04-25-17, 09:09 AM   #12
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It is the mod SENA-24HF-Z.
When it gets here I will start a post on it.
I'm going to put it on a concrete pad as I did for my other split.

Last year we were using a very inefficient 10,000btu portable air conditioning unit. The kind that rejects heat through a dryer vent. The problem with this type of unit is it draws air from inside the structure to cool the condenser coils so any time it's cooling air is being drawn in from the outside.
That almost worked.
It's being replaced with a closed loop unit that has almost 2 and a half times more cooling capacity.

I'm thinking a 3/4 ton split, probably not big enough, would work most of the year.
I figured a 1 ton split will likely cool decently on all but the hottest days.
A 1.5 ton should work pretty good.
And a 2 ton removes all doubt.
A 2.5t would just be overkill.
3 ton is just showing off.
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Old 04-25-17, 05:36 PM   #13
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I have the SENA-12HF-Z in our 550 sq-ft upstairs master bedroom (west and south wall sun exposure). Here in Houston we have to push its turbo mode quite a bit if we forget to leave it running while we are out.

Documentation is pretty sparse and tech support is rather uninformed (are they really guessing?). That said, with a 24k you may find "auto" mode becoming your default setting. It is the quietest of all the modes and if you run the unit 24/7 it seems to do fairly well at holding temperature. My electric bill runs about $100 most months in my 2500 sq ft house running 5 mini splits totaling 7 ton max capacity. I never have seen max capacity with the inverters......
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Old 04-25-17, 07:08 PM   #14
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Yeah Houston gets a lot more humid and a little hotter then where I am.
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Old 04-25-17, 07:48 PM   #15
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Yep, that is where my downstairs LG 30K is the superstar. It can remove over a gallon of moisture per hour! Puts my Grees and Senville to shame and they are decent.
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Old 04-25-17, 11:25 PM   #16
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Wow I get maybe a gallon a day out of my bedroom 9,000btu inverter split.
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Old 04-26-17, 12:51 AM   #17
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The Grees will pull out about half a gallon per hour and my Senville Aura 12k in the master bedroom pulls about a quart and a half an hour. Good old Houston area humidity. You can depend on that.

With dry air feeling cooler, maybe I should move to New Mexico, or maybe just downstairs. Grrrrrr......
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Old 04-27-17, 07:12 AM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by oil pan 4 View Post
It is the mod SENA-24HF-Z.
When it gets here I will start a post on it.
I'm going to put it on a concrete pad as I did for my other split.

Last year we were using a very inefficient 10,000btu portable air conditioning unit. The kind that rejects heat through a dryer vent. The problem with this type of unit is it draws air from inside the structure to cool the condenser coils so any time it's cooling air is being drawn in from the outside.
That almost worked.
It's being replaced with a closed loop unit that has almost 2 and a half times more cooling capacity.

I'm thinking a 3/4 ton split, probably not big enough, would work most of the year.
I figured a 1 ton split will likely cool decently on all but the hottest days.
A 1.5 ton should work pretty good.
And a 2 ton removes all doubt.
A 2.5t would just be overkill.
3 ton is just showing off.
OK, I understand your line of reasoning here. Kinda sorta like the other thread about thermostat setback and heat pumps. Rather than do a load calculation or find a unit with well-documented performance specs, just buy an oversized unit. That way, if the unit is overrated by the manufacturer or an extreme day happens, the unit will not fall on its face trying to maintain comfort. During typical operation, the unit can be throttled back towards the efficient performance range, saving energy.

I guess this idea is cheaper than buying a unit that is barely rated to provide the required load 99 percent of the time. Most likely, a smaller unit (especially a value brand product) would be running in it's "not so efficient" range more often. More importantly, the smaller unit wouldn't​ be able to deliver the heat or cooling required on the 1 percent days (or more often if overrated).

Sounds eerily like a few of the HVAC installers in my locale: Oh, you have an R-22 unit? Those are no good anymore. Yes, we can possibly fix it, but what you really need is this new inverter unit that uses environmentally friendly R-1234567. Since the old one wasn't able to deliver the heat every day, we will upsize your unit for you. We have a special this month on a system that is perfect for your home. We can put it in today, all you need to do is sign this paper...

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Old 04-27-17, 08:02 AM   #19
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Also I want to be able to turn the unit completely off during the day then crank it up about 1700L and have it actually be able to cool down the house on a 100°F day.
I did the load calculations, I wrote it down on a strip of toilet paper and left it next to the toilet because I have found that's about all they are really good for, says I really only need a 1 ton to 1.5 ton. The price difference between a 1 ton and 2 ton is about 50% more and I consider the 1.5 and 2 ton price difference to be negligible over the long haul.

Based on my observations the traditional air conditioning sizing method appears to focus on picking the lowest cost unit that will keep the house cool when ran continuously even on most of the hottest days of the year.
Since system cost is not my primary concern why size it the old fashioned way?

Plus I'm doing it all. Pouring the concrete pad, running electrical, install the unit, vacuum down the system, charging and firing it up. The AC installer company wants to do an install because their labor charge half to 2/3 of the total price and the repair man likely gets a kickback for selling a unit they have in inventory.
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Old 04-28-17, 01:45 AM   #20
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Oil Pan 4,

After awhile when you see how efficient the mini splits are, you may find yourself doing as I do, letting them run 24/7 in auto mode and switch back to heat or cool mode for the bedroom for the night, though with the Senville Aura unit it will try to maintain plus or minus 2 degrees from set point in auto mode so if that works for your area, all the better than fiddling with it.

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