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Old 07-09-12, 08:04 PM   #61
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Maybe the reason none of them had a fancy pad like yours was that they are not needed? I was discouraged from pouring one as it would just become a carrier for a sheet of ice.

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Old 07-09-12, 08:20 PM   #62
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Originally Posted by S-F View Post
...They earned it though because now I'm a full fledged mini split installer...
That's the spirit... only maybe 3/4 fledged, so far.

I'd still recommend any newbee to use a torque wrench. If you're doing installs every day it would be unnecessary, but for the inexperienced installer, the wrench isn't expensive, and the torque specs are in the installation manual. Then you know for sure.

Way cheaper than a service call.

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Old 07-09-12, 09:01 PM   #63
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Xringer View Post
I've heard of many people getting discouraged from buying a mini-split
because of installed cost was about 2.5 to 3 times the price for the unit (seen on the web).
So, it seems to me like you got the labor for $1,000 each unit.
Yeah, it seems high to me too, but not to a lot of installers.

With your prep work, and what looks like plain vanilla installs, they didn't have
to do a ton of work for their money. But, you got a good deal compared to what many folks pay.

Nice that it's warm weather. They don't have to spend a lot of time on the vacuuming.

The next time we have a heat wave, you're going to forget all about labor cost..
I have a buddy looking to add a central furnace to replace his electric baseboards. The aren't overly fond of the look of minisplit head units and on the quotes the cost to install 2 of them was more then to install a central gas furnace and have ducting added. If I remember correctly the prices came back at 8k for gas, 10k for 2 minisplits and 14k for a central heatpump
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Old 07-09-12, 09:22 PM   #64
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Maybe the reason none of them had a fancy pad like yours was that they are not needed? I was discouraged from pouring one as it would just become a carrier for a sheet of ice.
A concrete pad or solid concrete blocks is per the Sanyo install manual.

I've seen dozens of outdoor AC units mounted on concrete pads, and liked
the idea of a large solid mounting surface that wouldn't sink into the mud,
and allow the Sanyo to start tilting over.

Check out this Jumbo Sanyo.. (Behind me).
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...ger/rich-1.jpg

It's not the only one that I've seen that looks like it's going to fall over someday.
Patio bricks aren't the best mount, if the soil gets muddy..

I've seen a little ice on my pad, but it never lasted long enough to get more than 1/8" thick..
No really dangerous, since the pad is so small, there's no room for walking on it..

What I wanted to avoid is deep snow building up around my system.
And rain water running down the wall, and splashing into coil.
So far, my anti-snow & rain measures have worked out okay..
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Old 07-09-12, 09:38 PM   #65
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Quote:
Originally Posted by strider3700 View Post
I have a buddy looking to add a central furnace to replace his electric baseboards. The aren't overly fond of the look of minisplit head units and on the quotes the cost to install 2 of them was more then to install a central gas furnace and have ducting added. If I remember correctly the prices came back at 8k for gas, 10k for 2 minisplits and 14k for a central heatpump
It seems that most installers want a lot of money to install mini splits.
And a lot of folks don't like the idea of paying 5 or 6 grand to have
a $2,000 unit installed, by one guy, in one day.?.

No one like the idea of paying that much per hour, for a job that
looks pretty basic when you watch it done on Youtube.
Plus, many people feel they can't afford it.

Looks:
My wife didn't like the look of the indoor unit at all..
But after 'feeling' the benefits of inverter technology, she is fully sold! She loves our Sanyos.

LG had 'Cool Art' indoor units when I checked last summer (work related).
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Old 07-09-12, 09:54 PM   #66
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AC_Hacker View Post
That's the spirit... only maybe 3/4 fledged, so far.

I'd still recommend any newbee to use a torque wrench. If you're doing installs every day it would be unnecessary, but for the inexperienced installer, the wrench isn't expensive, and the torque specs are in the installation manual. Then you know for sure.

Way cheaper than a service call.

-AC
Oh, of course I would use a torque wrench and grease the flares. I was making light of how much tension I have witnessed surround the installation of these units and how effortless it seemed for me to watch. I even use a torque wrench for putting on a valve cover.... ever since I snapped off one of the bolts in the nut. That sucked. The stud was one of the bolts which held the rocker assembly down. I snapped that one off twice. Must be a ham fisted moron.
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Old 07-18-12, 08:28 PM   #67
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Some post heat pump observations:

I have 2 x 9,000 BTU units. In the evening when I come home I turn them both on. If it's really rough outside I keep one unit on dehumidify at night and turn it off when I leave in the morning. I have the temp set to 72° on both units. It has been burning hot this week. Close to 100°. I haven't come home to a house showing a temperature over 73°. Mind all of my windows have curtains pulled over them during the day. My new gadgets are cool but spending $ to run AC always pains me. Even when they are 26 SEER AC units. I've just gotta prioritize and build that swimming pond in the back yard to cool off.
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You know you're an ecorenovator if anything worth insulating is worth superinsulating.
Quote:
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Old 07-19-12, 08:34 AM   #68
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72 degrees is a bit cooler than we keep our house, and we have been through scorching weather too. We keep the temperature set at 75 degrees all summer when the AC is on {most of the summer} and at 71 or 72 during the heating season.

That said, 9k BTU twice is what, equivalent to a 1.5 ton central unit? I had an oversized unit installed at my home when we built it 10 years ago, because I didn't know better back then. We have 3.5 tons where the installer suggested a 2.5 ton unit. That will be corrected next year. You must either have a smaller home than I thought, or it must be considerably more efficient than mine.
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Old 07-19-12, 03:38 PM   #69
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Yeah, 18,000 BTU is 1.5 ton. It's probably a combination of both smaller and more efficient. My basement doesn't really need conditioning and the rest of the house is pretty straight forward. It's a ranch. Of all the different types of houses out there I consistently see ranches being tighter than any other. It's just such a simple design. There is little room for the common air sealing debacles to take place.
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You know you're an ecorenovator if anything worth insulating is worth superinsulating.
Quote:
S-F: "What happens when you slam the door on a really tight house? Do the basement windows blow out?"

Green Building Guru: "You can't slam the door on a really tight house. You have to work to pull it shut."
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Old 01-19-13, 09:54 PM   #70
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Simple Winter Notes on The Heat Pumps:


So I have been using these things for heat since it started to get cold here in MA. My general usage is to turn them on in the morning for 1.5 hours and for about 2.5 hours in the evening. The rest of the time they are off and the house is unheated. In order to bring the house up to temp they run full tilt. When they run I have them set to 70°. Early this morning I saw the lowest temperature all winter with a record low of 61° upstairs. The basement is always cooler by a few degrees as it's unheated. On one occasion I accidentally left one on all night in 0° conditions and in the morning (very early AM before the Sun made its appearance) the gadget was still putting out great heat and the whole house was warm. The thermostat in the hall in the middle of my upstairs read 71° which is one degree higher than the heat pump is set for. I have been paying attention to when the defrost cycles happen, because you can tell by the noises the units make, and I always quickly look out the window at the outdoor unit. I have yet to see any ice or water or anything like that. The coils do get frosty and then defrost. There has never been any ice or anything like that. I haven't bothered to remove snow from the top of the units because the defrost cycles don't do it on their own. I haven't kept track of last year's heating costs with Line Gas but I can say that the average addition to my electric bill for the last two months has been about $50. Less in December. Maybe more next month. It's hard to say as other electric loads fluctuate.
Right now it’s about 30° outside and the heat pumps have been running all evening so the mass in the house has had time to come up to temp. They are barely moving air at all now compared to how I push them usually.
Also, and this is very important, I had these units installed in the middle of the summer when it was brutal hot here. I spent the majority of the summer working 10-14 hour/day commercial jobs in attics which would reach 120° by 11 AM. No one looked at the thermometer after that. I would come home, take a straight up cold shower and sit in 70° AC. Such aggressive cooling, more aggressive then my heating because I can now put more clothes on to keep warm, resulted in an average increase of $40/month in 7/12-8/12. It got to the point where I was sleeping in a 70° room.
The moral of the story is that heat pumps are winners. At least the right ones for the right climate.

Tomorrow: air sealing an attic…….

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You know you're an ecorenovator if anything worth insulating is worth superinsulating.
Quote:
S-F: "What happens when you slam the door on a really tight house? Do the basement windows blow out?"

Green Building Guru: "You can't slam the door on a really tight house. You have to work to pull it shut."
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