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Old 08-16-11, 04:25 PM   #11
Xringer
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"new ASHP's are going to eviscerate the geothermal market."

The very best cold weather units are being installed in Canada right now.
Can't get them in the USA yet..

For the money, I'm sold on inverter-mini-splits for southern New England type weather.
For folks who live where the January mean is above 25F, there is no good reason not to use em.
(Unless gas is as cheap as air)..


January 2000 Mean Temperature Map of United States


One other point, Americans move around a lot.
If you can patch up a 3" hole in the wall, you just might be able to take
your mini-split with you, when you move. Nothing to dig up!

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Old 08-17-11, 01:08 PM   #12
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A few things that should not be over looked on the AC is:
Cleaning Air Conditioners in the Spring
Cleaning/replacing the air filter
Reducing thermal loading by blocking light from windows
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Old 08-20-11, 01:56 AM   #13
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Wow, this generated alot of interesting responses!

Ryland, once I though of the water idea, I also remembered many Window units use this to increase efficiency of their small condenser coils.

To everyone who talked about humidity, I agree in full with everything said, its amazing how much of a difference there is between 40-50% and 70%+ even at the same temp! We run our portable dehumidifier in the basement and when if it gets turned off for a while you can definitely feel the difference. We often open windows at night to take advantage of the free cool air which most days allows us to coast to a late enough point in the day when its not so hot out again before the house gets to warm. Unfortunately some nights, like tonight, the air is damp, its over 70% RH inside now, so I'll put the output of the dehu blowing into the furnace return vent in the basement with the furnace fan on to circulate cool dry air through the house once its the same temp as outdoors and close the windows, it works very well and the dehu uses around 300w i believe.

On another note, has anyone here heard of the Hallowell Acadia? It's a ASHP that still produces usable heat down to -30*F before finally switching to backup. It uses a booster compressor system to do it. Very ingenious design I think. Unfortunately the company (smal company based out of Maine, went bankrupt due to a high failure rate. From what I gather, Bristol (compressor manuf.) told them to use a certain start relay design that caused major problems and most times ended in compressor death. Hallowell resisted but they gave no other choice so they used it anyway. Sad to see another larger company like trane or carrier didn't buy the technology and fix the flaws. I was sad to see such a great technology die out because of such a simple problem.

Lastly, I started on my water cooling project today. Took a 3ft piece of 3/8"(I believe) clear tubing and drilled 1/16" holes every inch in it. Taped one end shut, and hooked a tiny fountain pump to the other. Depending on pressure I can get anywear from a steady drip to a 3ft spray from this setup. I'm going to test it small scale to see how much of a difference it makes on an old minifridge with coils embedded in one side that get pretty warm. I'm going to do one test with a small fan blowing up the side and see how long it takes to pull down from room 70* to 30* then another test with water running down the side and time the difference. If I had a Kill-O-Watt I could get more useful info but unfortunately I don't and for my boredom inspired curiosity this will do.
I'll post some pics tomorrow.

Adam
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Old 08-20-11, 09:41 AM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by launboy View Post
Unfortunately some nights, like tonight, the air is damp, its over 70% RH inside now, so I'll put the output of the dehu blowing into the furnace return vent in the basement with the furnace fan on to circulate cool dry air through the house once its the same temp as outdoors and close the windows, it works very well and the dehu uses around 300w i believe.
I tried using the furnace fan as well combined with the basement dehumidifier and from my measurements with a kill-a-watt meter and a clamp on amp meter for measuring the furnace draw, what I found is that my energy star dehumidifier drew around 600 watts and the furnace fan draws around 650 watts, window A/C draws around 1,200 watts and the a/c drys and cools the air more then the dry cool basement air did and did so faster thus drawing less energy in total as long as we only ran the A/C enough to lower the humidity, we also found that the a/c does a poor job of cooling the whole house but it dries the air well so we, like you, open the windows when it's cooler outside, then close up and run the a/c and dry the now cool air.
running a window A/C unit in the basement would also work well to dry the basement, if you happen to have a window that is large enough an in an area that you can fit the A/C, because on the lowest fan setting it will do a good job of dehumidifying the air and dumps the heat outside.


Quote:
If I had a Kill-O-Watt I could get more useful info but unfortunately I don't and for my boredom inspired curiosity this will do.
I'll post some pics tomorrow.

Adam

You live in Wisconsin so check out your local public library and ask them for an "energy meter" it will be in a little black case with all of the other electronics that you can check out, often behind the check out desk so you have to ask for it, it's not the kill-a-watt brand, but it works the same, is free to use and you get to keep it for 2-3 weeks.
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Old 08-21-11, 01:06 AM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryland View Post
You live in Wisconsin so check out your local public library and ask them for an "energy meter" it will be in a little black case with all of the other electronics that you can check out, often behind the check out desk so you have to ask for it, it's not the kill-a-watt brand, but it works the same, is free to use and you get to keep it for 2-3 weeks.
No way, you can do that? Looks like I'm taking a trip to the library tomorrow. That'll be interesting!

Ps where in western WI do you leave? I'll be going to school at Platteville in the fall.

Adam
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Old 08-23-11, 06:38 AM   #16
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I had wondered about using water to cool my central a/c unit but I am on city water so i figured it was inefficient. I love the idea of using rain water and especially the condensate from the evaporator. Now i just need to come up with building plans for this.

My a/c unit is on the east side of the house, so in the morning when it has sun on it, i generally do not need it on. There are also several trees around my house that provide shade for the a/c unit.
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Old 08-23-11, 08:58 AM   #17
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I was considering a mister for the outside AC unit. Someone on another site tried it and it worked, but... it left mineral deposits all over the coils. Unless you have an exceptionally pure water supply I would not do it. Mine's exceptionally mineral-y, so I tossed that idea.
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Old 08-23-11, 09:23 AM   #18
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I don't suppose any cheap water filter will take that stuff out eh?
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Old 08-23-11, 01:40 PM   #19
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I have a kinetico water softener. I am going to make a mister to use on the condenser. I should not have problems with mineral deposits.
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Old 08-23-11, 06:42 PM   #20
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Default Use Distilled Water...

The idea of using water that is condensed from the A/C should be a really good one... after all, since it is condensed from moisture in the air, it is literally distilled. Distilled water leaves the mineral deposits behind.

The spongy evaporator pads that swamp coolers use would be the cat's meow, with condenser water dripping into the top of the pad. The pad would have to go inside the A/C, ahead of the condenser. Some kind of tiny pump would be required to get the water to the pad.

With a mini-split however, this would be a piece-o-cake because the intake to the condenser would be accessible from outside of the unit, and also the inside unit is usually located higher than the outside unit, so gravity would bring the condenser water to the evaporator pad.

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