The Homemade Heat Pump Manifesto

[pinballlooking]

Thanks for the info it will be fun to get it and start reading.

I am not sure if I will take on this project but reading about your project has been fun.

I have a tractor with a post hole digger I don't know how deep I could dig. I have a 4”, 6” and 12” bit.
These guys did it with adding 4’ 2” black pipe and pulling the auger every 2’ feet to clean it out.
Drilling your own water well

I would not want to hit water. My neighbor had to go very deep to hit water like 200’ I would not be digging that far.

[BeerGrylls]

Promised pics of my boat ASHP ghetto install. Takes about 8kw/day with outside temps ranging from 0-7deg C. There is plenty of room in the engine compartment to keep all the guts of the WSHP conversion in there, and I look forward to having my cockpit back...

[pinballlooking]

8kw/day is not bad at all with those temps.
Is the outside unit secured?

[BeerGrylls]

Originally Posted by pinballlooking

8kw/day is not bad at all with those temps.
Is the outside unit secured?

No, it is simply sitting on the wood grating, which at it's turn it is just sitting on the glass fiber bench without any fastening. The unit is very silent and almost vibration free. Unit is 40kg.

Cheers,
F

[pinballlooking]

I would be worried someone would lean against it and move those flare fittings releasing the Freon. It does not take that much movement to mess with the flare fittings.

It looks like it would put out very good heat in that space.

[nokiasixteth]

Originally Posted by pinballlooking

Thanks for the info it will be fun to get it and start reading.

I am not sure if I will take on this project but reading about your project has been fun.

I have a tractor with a post hole digger I don't know how deep I could dig. I have a 4”, 6” and 12” bit.
These guys did it with adding 4’ 2” black pipe and pulling the auger every 2’ feet to clean it out.


I would not want to hit water. My neighbor had to go very deep to hit water like 200’ I would not be digging that far.

I have a well around 300 or so ft but here i have a well i dug my self i hit water at like 13 ft

( Well they was a link here but it wont let me put it )

For drillin with your hand that will work great. I am goin to try the way waterdigger2 did with the gas powered water pump to try dig deeper than what i did with pure water.

[nokiasixteth]

Originally Posted by pinballlooking

I would be worried someone would lean against it and move those flare fittings releasing the Freon. It does not take that much movement to mess with the flare fittings.

It looks like it would put out very good heat in that space.

I would be more worried about the loosin that high price unit into the water . I would want it bolted down at least

[nokiasixteth]

Originally Posted by BeerGrylls

Promised pics of my boat ASHP ghetto install. Takes about 8kw/day with outside temps ranging from 0-7deg C. There is plenty of room in the engine compartment to keep all the guts of the WSHP conversion in there, and I look forward to having my cockpit back...

What temps are you keepin the inside with only usin 8kws a day ? And how many sq ft ?

[nokiasixteth]

Originally Posted by MN Renovator

"Would there be a way to by pass the Acs temp sensor and fix a sensor that would switch the compressor on and off using an external temp sensor just hooking into the electronics and not having to cut and (braze) for the time being ?"

Crude option 1: You would need to see if you can move the thermocouple. I have a small 5k BTUhr AC unit and it has a thermocouple mounted in front of the evaporator coil with wiring that appears long enough to route towards the back of the unit. I'd then set the unit to 60 degrees with the thermocouple inside the house or in the hot exhaust.

Crude option 2: If you can handle basic electrical wiring would be to bypass the controls and have it power up whenever its plugged in. If you go this route and everything works you could then use a line voltage heating thermostat to switch the unit on and off.

One problem: This is an AC unit with a cap tube system(usually heat pumps use a TXV to maximize heat output and increase efficiency) and isn't designed to heat, you'll need to do some experimentation on how well this unit can heat at 17 degrees. You also don't have any sort of defrost control so you'll need to figure that out too, as soon as the coil freezes you'll need to turn it off because you won't be pumping heat in the house anymore. If this was used slightly above freezing temp you could have a switch that shuts the unit off when the coil hits freezing temperature and kick back on when it is warm enough.

Others will provide more information than me but that should be a start in order to test.

I think i will try number 2. Or 1 with the wires. I have a workin knowledge of wires and eletrical . When it comes to this hvac stuff . I dont have a clue.
Maybe a snap disk switch on that coil that would keep it from freezin up ?

[AC_Hacker]

Originally Posted by BeerGrylls

Promised pics of my boat ASHP ghetto install. Takes about 8kw/day with outside temps ranging from 0-7deg C. There is plenty of room in the engine compartment to keep all the guts of the WSHP conversion in there, and I look forward to having my cockpit back...

OK, thanks for the photos. Now I see what is going on.

Looks to me like you have a fairly modern heat pump that has a variable speed compressor. They are really efficient machines.

You haven't said very much about your background. For instance what kind of work do you do? Do you enjoy being involved with technical activities. Are you an electrical engineer, for instance? Do you have experience with analog and digital circuitry? Do you have an O-scope? Do you have experience with a logic analyzer?

The reason I'm asking is that the kind of unit you have is pretty sophisticated and if you make appreciable changes to it (if you want to hack it), you'll probably need to employ the technical skills, that I mentioned above.

Being able to hack a variable speed heat pump holds out the promise of being able to create an unusually efficient new machine.

So far, on the EcoRenovator forum, some talented people have worked on doing that very thing, but if they have reported back on their success, I have not heard of it, and I watch the forum pretty closely.

Acuario has tried to do this and has gotten farther than any one I know of. His work starts RIGHT HERE.

BradC also did some very innovative work, but I don't recall if he ever attempted to hack a variable speed compressor.

In my own work I have tried to stick with simpler machines because there are significant efficiency gains to be made there.

But I have held out the hope that someone will solve the riddle and that hacking variable speed compressor machines will become more common.

Maybe that person is you?

Best,

-AC