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Old 10-04-10, 03:24 PM   #181
Xringer
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Default Two more holes in the house!!

Yeah, shorter is better in most cases. Long Line sets aren't cheap.
And, the smaller units use less power, so some use 120vac.
Makes life a little simpler in some cases.

I hope someone (maybe Sanyo) takes this inverter technology
and builds a window unit AC/HP in the 6,000 to 10,000 BTU range.
(I don't care if it's case is the size of an 18,000 BTU)!

People could forget about storing away their window AC in the fall.
One in a bedroom window, would allow for turning the main house temp
way down on cold winter nights.. Just close the door..



~~~~~

I just did a mod to my little snow roof..



The little siding flap on the house keeps rain water from dripping down behind the unit.. I just tested it.

During rainy days, I don't like the idea of the fan pulling drops of water into the coil and blowing water out the front.
If it's 35 degrees and raining, that could lead to icing pretty quick..


So, what do you guys think of the plastic Latticework? (My wife's idea)..
Ya know, that stuff might keep snow drifts from piling up on the pad..

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Old 10-04-10, 03:46 PM   #182
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Looks good to me. The last thing I want to do is shovel more snow off another area.
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Old 10-04-10, 04:26 PM   #183
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I will do the same...
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Old 10-05-10, 09:55 AM   #184
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That looks good Xringer. My condenser is going to have to be 3+ feet off of the ground--my house is in bottom land for a creek and prone to flood--so it will either be a treated lumber platform or mounting it to the wall. I am leaning toward a platform since I have brick veneer walls and it will be better off being farther away from the wall to allow for adequate airflow.

I think I am going to go for two units--both LG since they have the prettier indoor units--one a single and the other a double. I made up a model of my house with HEED and it says that I need a maximum of about 65000 BTU to heat on the coldest night and 38000 BTU to cool on the hottest day. This is a bit of an over estimate since I don't keep my house as warm/cool as most people, but it will still be a lot of heating and cooling.

Currently, I have three 10 SEER window units that range from 9000 to 12000 BTU, so slightly undersized according to HEED. For heating, I have a natural gas conversion boiler with a burner rated at 175000 BTU (!!) that I have down rated to around 100000 or so since it was designed to heat a house without insulation. I estimate its efficiency at around 60%. I will try to remember to get some pictures of that beast since you guys might enjoy seeing it.
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Old 10-05-10, 10:31 AM   #185
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The platform idea sounds good. That will allow a lot of clearance around the input.
All the install manuals tell you that you need a Bunch of clearance for input air.

Mine is installed close to minimum back clearance, with the upper clearance
dimension totally ignored. (After consulting with scientist).
Plus, I see no good reason to have my roof so high it would be useless.
I have poked around behind my unit while it was running hard, and
I can't really hear or feel there is any air flow restriction at all.
If there is, it's not having a noticeable effect on operation.


I've seen a LOT of pics (and movies) of wall mounted units (mostly European)
where it looked like they were using about 300mm of input clearance.
So, wall mounting works, but might add more background noise to your home.

Our outdoor unit might be making some noise, but it's very hard to tell.
You have to walk right up to it before you know it's running.
It's only a few feet from a window, but I have to open it, raise the screen
and stick out my head, before I can hear any fan noise.
It's a bass (low frequency sound.
I can hear the old tech AC next door, but can't hear mine!!
Maybe his needs maintenance?
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Old 10-05-10, 07:37 PM   #186
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Quote:
Originally Posted by benpope View Post
I think I am going to go for two units--both LG since they have the prettier indoor units--one a single and the other a double. I made up a model of my house with HEED and it says that I need a maximum of about 65000 BTU to heat on the coldest night and 38000 BTU to cool on the hottest day. This is a bit of an over estimate since I don't keep my house as warm/cool as most people, but it will still be a lot of heating and cooling.
benpope,

With fossil fuel heat, the rule of thumb was to do a heat load (like you did with HEED) and multiply that by 1.5, and that would be the size (minimum) of your furnace.

With Heat Pumps, it's different because bigger compressors mean bigger friction and even if you have a unit with "Inverter Technology", which you probably do, when you are running at fractional power, which is almost always, you'll have to pay for that extra friction all the time.

So the Heat Pump rule of thumb is to calculate your load (HEED) and size your heat pump slightly smaller, realizing that you'll be using an axillary heating source in those unusual instances when your Heat Pump will need some help.

So your axillary source might be electric resistance, or oil, or gas, or wood, or in Xringer's case, a miniature Thorium reactor.

My house, by rule of thumb, should use 24,000 BTU. Just get me by while I was finishing up my GSHP project, I bought a 9,000 BTU mini-split. It's really too small to heat my house.

The strategy I have developed so far is to heat only the part of the house I am using, by opening and closing doors, as required.

Usually, where I live winters consist of temperatures hovering in the low-forties to high-thirties. Last winter, we had nearly a week where the temps plunged down to around 12 degrees and stayed there.

So I retreated to my 'core room' and was just fine. The mini-split wasn't even running full out. My heating cost during that time was $6.50 for the week.

That's a pretty small footprint.

So I say, start on the small side and try to stay there. Add another unit later if you really need it. That's the beauty of mini-splits.

Regards,

-AC_Hacker
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Old 10-05-10, 08:03 PM   #187
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Default Thorium reactor

Yeah, it's a Quad Core miniature Thorium reactor, but let's try to keep it quite,
I don't want the folks down at city hall to start asking me for my permits..



I stole the idea from the Japanese, but simplified it for heating my boiler..

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Old 10-06-10, 09:29 AM   #188
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Xringer View Post
Yeah, it's a Quad Core miniature Thorium reactor, but let's try to keep it quite,
I don't want the folks down at city hall to start asking me for my permits..
LOL - I would be more than happy to solve our nuclear waste problem. What I want is a cask of radioactive waste that I can keep buried in my back yard. I could set up a heat exchanger to heat the water for my radiators. No fission reaction necessary, just regular decay. 100,000 years of heat emitting no carbon using a waste product. My wife's uncle works in nuclear decommission and cleanup, but for some reason I can't convince him to get me one of those casks. The nerve of some people...



AC Hacker, thanks for the information. I hadn't thought much about the greater friction from the larger compressor. Looks like it will be better to get one unit at a time. My wife and I already zone our house - close off the hall and heat only the back or front of the house or just the room we are sitting in. Last winter we were able to heat the front of the house almost exclusively with the wood stove, but that left the back unbearably cold when we needed to use it. It looks like I will install the first heat pump in the back of the house. I already have unused 220 running on that side of the house, so wiring should be pretty easy.
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Old 10-06-10, 08:04 PM   #189
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got my lineset installed to the condenser.. You are right about bending the pipe. It is a lot easier than I thought. The Fujitsu even have a spring bender installed on both lines.. nicely done. I tried to torque the lineset with my torque wrench with crowfeet still couldn't torque. I guess I am 15 ft up on a ladder.. no leverage .. need my GF to hold the ladder later on the week and see. I did put lot of nyloc blue on the fitting.. hope it won't leak later.
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Old 10-06-10, 08:55 PM   #190
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No leverage? You are using two wrenches? Aren't you?


(Hey! That wood 'bender' is shorter than I remembered. Shown with brass caps installed).

When I did my ladder work, I held the brazed end fixed, with my wrench,
solidly planted on the wall or ladder, (holding it with my righthand)
and pulled the torquing wrench towards me, using my left hand,
kinda working one hand/wrench against the other.

While you are up there, see if you can easily blow some air into the drain hose.
Pretend you are blowing up a balloon..
If air won't go in, the hose is pinched and you will need to insert a small
section of plastic tubing, so the water can drain.. (retest).


When you get the lineset installed, hook up some nitrogen and do a nice long pressure test.
And of course the soap bubble test will tell you if something went horribly wrong.

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