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Old 02-14-15, 11:47 PM   #591
warmwxrules
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Mini splits would be tough here...probably plenty of down time. I'd use a wood stove (i have one/just not installed//little kids need to get a little bigger//wife not thrilled) on those cold days (like today)...also need lots of southern exposure. Feb sun is getting nice and strong. Another thing..insulation...never enough insulation...

Over here that is tshirt weather. It was around 4F here for the high today...and that was not counting the 30mph winds all day. Didn't bother me much, but it was sunny and my house stays nice and toasty...once the sun goes down, the furnace comes back to life. -12F tonite.

The cold doesn't bother me that much, but i don't work out in it. When i'm out in it, i dress for it. Layers and layers...rarely take my stocking stocking cap off...wear gloves...long underwear pretty much all winter. I've been here my whole life and lived through some very cold winters...to me this winter has been a piece of cake, but the core of the cold seems to have shifted far east this year (as has the snow--very little here). For perspective, we usually see a few nights each winter around -20F...and -30Fs really aren't unheard of if you go back in time...just not much recently.

Move south? Get out of the US. Panama or Costa Rica. My older brother retires soon and i'm pushing him to go there (he'll have one of those fat government pension checks coming in monthly)...they are always going to Mexico to escape this crap.

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Old 02-15-15, 08:01 AM   #592
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Ringer-

Do you think a new mini split model would work much better then yours in this cold weather? At what temp do you find it useless to run yours?

-7F overnight but clouds saved me from going any lower. This is roughly the 15th or so time below 0F.

Its still doesn't make sense for me to move away from natural gas, but someday when prices go back up it might. Even wood isn't worth it to me at this time. I've yet to have a $200 utility bill (gas/electric) this winter and that is a family of 5.
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Old 02-15-15, 09:17 AM   #593
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Once had a to spend a week in Pierre, SD. So I understand why humans shouldn't live
in those norther areas. Flew in late, parked my borrowed car at the motel,
woke up the next morning and there was 4 or 5 inches of ice covering the whole car!
No snow, it was a thick layer of clear hard ice.. Not even many bubbles in it.
Plus, it was about 2 def F. I just called locals for rides that week..

Now that I'm getting more sensitive to the cold (I'm old), I understand the need for
"Layers and layers".. Last night I had on a T-shirt, long sleeve T-shirt, fleece pulloverand my Old Navy Hoodie. Four layers!
I still felt cold.. Then I noticed the den Sanyo was on 20C instead of 21C..
I had done a forced defrost earlier and forgot to put it back to 21C..
For pants, I wear two layers and some thick socks..
Hat use indoors is intermittent. I get hotheaded inside of an hour..

Always use them on days like today, when moving snow..
Got about 14" of fresh powder this morning..

Had warm air coming out of the Sanyos at 5F the other night.
That's normally where I'm shutting them down.
Since they are pulling about 1kW each at that temp..

I normally use 10F as the point where I crank up the backup oil heat.
Due to the snow, it's been on a lot these past 4 or 5 storms..

I'm not sure how the newer systems work. I think down to zero.
That would make me happy.. For now anyways..
In a few more years, the trend could be below zero..

My oil boiler can use solid fuel.. Now that we have this trend
towards an ice age, I'm going to stock up on solid fuel..
If the power goes out today, we will be in real trouble.
It would take continuous hard work to keep the house warm..

Got to defrost now.. While the blizzard has slowed a bit..
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Old 02-15-15, 10:12 AM   #594
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Default Defrost time!

If the temperature is 10 to 20 deg F, the Sanyos can still pump heat,
when the heat exchangers are pretty much covered with snow..
Not sure how that works, but it does..

When it's 21C (our regular setpoint), and the power use is around 400 to 600W,
the output temperature of the indoor unit is mostly less that 90F..
Once the power draw goes up to 700 or more, the indoor HX gets up over 100F.
That only happens for short cycles during normal weather..
But when it' really cold.. Under about 8F, the power can stay at 1200W for
long periods. That's normally a good time to switch to backup.
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Old 02-15-15, 12:43 PM   #595
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Southern exposure/windows help a lot here. We face south with no obstructions, so get plenty of sun (when its out). Usually about 10am until 3pm the furnace takes a brake on even the coldest/full sunshine days.

If i could design my own house, it would have tiny north facing windows (just for some natural light/ventilation in the summer) and a whole row of south facing glass. With wide enough overhangs, summer sun wouldn't heat it much at all. With enough mass (concrete floors?), you could really store heat for some time.

Watch out for ice damming on your roof. I know when we get too much snow i usually grab the roof rake and take down the first 8 feet or so all around the house (hip roof/ranch...easy reach if i use a short ladder). I never have any damming, but i worry about all that weight sitting up there (i think this 1950s dump should hold!). I can remember years past watching neighbors get up on the roof with shovels and even snowblowers. My hip has very little pitch so it doesn't shed snow very easily. Once these asphalt shingles go to garbage i'm moving to a metal roof and not worry about it again in my lifetime.

Be interesting to run a mini split off a bank of solar panels. I'd run them wide open on those sunny days...get the interior temps up to about 85F Its free heat at that point. Shut it down until it drops back to about 65F after the sun sets.
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Old 02-15-15, 04:33 PM   #596
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I was selling my wife on the idea of buying a grid-tied system that had a stand-alone mode.
For those bad days.. Couldn't tell her the price..

Funny about the ice dams.. I was looking up there today. Our roofs have more snow
than I've seen up there since we had the last ice dam problem..
I've placed melt wires in the problem area and we are hoping for the best..

I've got my fingers crossed the whole roof doesn't cave in..
If we get rain or another 2 feet of snow, we are going to have problems..

The radon count has been bouncing around for 3 weeks..
But suddenly settled down. Not sure what that means about the water table..
Maybe it's too cold for water to drip down to the granite substrate..

We have a small supply of solid fuel, in case of grid fail..
Old back-up batteries should give us comms for a few hours..

I hope this winter will be over someday..
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Old 02-19-15, 05:13 PM   #597
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Default Half buried in snow, but still working!

My wife cleaned out in front of the backyard Sanyo, (it was completely covered)
but we couldn't get to the front yard Sanyo. The snow roof helped.
But, snow still got behind both units. It's still piling up today.

It looks like the air input's are about 70% clear, and they are still working.
We do see some strange power surges when the temps get down under 10F.

We've been trying to keep too much snow from building up on the roofs.
(Snow loaded roofs are starting to cave in, around here).
Snow from the northside roof falls right on top of the backyard Sanyo.

It seems like the cure is to build extra large snow roofs over both units.
I'm thinking maybe a 4'x10' or 5'x10' roof for both units.
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Old 02-19-15, 05:19 PM   #598
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I still think they should be mounted a couple of feet off the ground.
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Old 02-19-15, 05:48 PM   #599
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They aren't light.. 130.1 lbs. So the stand would have to be pretty strong.
And be resistant to harmonic oscillation.
It would also have to be vandal resistant. Not easy to push over.
If we went up 2 feet, the snow roof would need to go up 2 feet.

I think the large snow roofs are needed, not only because of drifts building up around the units,
but to keep snow from floating down near the air intake.
Since that snow gets sucked right into the HX.

When I look at the snow under my deck, I can see hardly any snow blew in under there.
Just a couple of feet and it's bare ground.


Or, I could just forget the whole roof idea and start in at the first snow,
with a shovel, and completely clear the area 5 feet around the Sanyos.
And just stay on top of it all winter. Be good workout of us..
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Old 03-08-15, 11:37 AM   #600
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This is the first weekend without a lot of snow we've had in a long time. (7 weeks). Just some flurries today..



Many of our defrost cycles this winter were due to blowing snow (blizzards).
The snow would quickly build up on the air intake/HX, harden up and eventually kick in a defrost cycle.
If the indoor temperature drops too much, over-current resets start up, during defrost recovery.
It's a PITB. I hate getting up at 4:00AM, turning off the Sanyos and switching to backup heat.

I was out looking at the mess this morning, and I've got a new idea about the little snow roof.

I'm thinking of converting it to a snow shed. I could get rid of the side lattice,
since it doesn't help with blowing snow..
And install a solid side wall replacing the lattice sections.

So, if snow was going to get pulled into the air-intake, it would have
to come in via the front door.. Where air is being pushed out..

I think this would cause losses, since some of the Sanyo-cooled air would
be recycled back into the input..

I would also have to keep the area in front of the open 'door', clear of snow.
Maybe make a channel in the snow banks, that runs down-hill (north),
to allow for the heavy super-cooled air to move out of the area.

During summer use, I think the Sanyo-heated exhaust air would move out & up,
and cool air near the ground would be pulled in, under and low around the sizes of the unit, into the air-intake.

Comments please.

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