Sanyo 24KHS72 AC/HP DIY install project

[Xringer]

Sanyo $2,111
SlimDuct $160
Pump $141
Gauge $132
Manifold $60
Plus Miscellaneous stuff, brings the total up to around $2,600
give or take $100.00

If I wanted to, I might be able to toss the 70mm hole saw in with the
AC tools and sell it all as a Mini-split Installer Kit.. Who knows?

Hehehe! My wife went out.. The heat is now 74 and I'm loving it!
Feel like I'm back home in Texas! (It's 80 in the hallway)!

Edit:
I've been sitting around watching TV this evening and goofing with the new Sanyo.
This machine is great! It's hardly running at all and heating the whole house.
I goosed it up to 74 and it went up to 72 back in the den (our coldest room) pretty quick.

I've found that placement of the remote (/portable thermostat) is important for
hitting your target temperature, in a selected area.
Also important is the manual aiming of the left-right vent direction vanes.
When both are aligned to shoot air down the hall, my PC room and the bedrooms get more heat than I expected.
This will be a real night-time power saver, since heat delivery to the sleeping areas is so effective.
One thing I didn't expect, is a warmer Bathroom! (The oil heat in there is pretty poor).

I hope, my baseboard forced hot-water (oil-fired) system is not going to see much use this winter.
Of course it will have to get used on those extra cold nights. I hope we don't have that many!


Cheers,
Rich

[NiHaoMike]

For even higher efficiency, turn it down to 65-68F or so once you finish the burn-in and performance tests.

[Xringer]

Maybe this weekend I can do some wattage measurements.
If it's not too cold for me to stand outdoors and watch the meter.
IIRC, every time the meter LCD blinks, means one 1 watt second.

I want to see what the wattage is for full, medium and low Heating operations.
That way, I'll have some idea of usage before my bill comes in..

Tonight, I'm checking out using the on-board thermistor (indoor unit), instead of using
the sensor inside the remote control.. So far, it seems okay..

I've a question for you Sanyo owners, Does the quiet mode save energy ?
I wonder if there is a bad trade-off running the inside fan at such a low speed?
Does that mean the compressor and outdoor fan motor have to do more work?
Because the inside fan is loafing along?

[AC_Hacker]

Originally Posted by Xringer

Does the quiet mode save energy ?
I wonder if there is a bad trade-off running the inside fan at such a low speed?
Does that mean the compressor and outdoor fan motor have to do more work?
Because the inside fan is loafing along?

I don't know.

I've been so pleased with the overall performance that I have not gone into the minutiae.

I'll be very interested to see what you come up with.

Regards,

-AC_Hacker

[Daox]

Every spec I've seen for a fan shows that they decrease with efficiency as their speed increases. So, at least for the fans I'd say that it is more efficient at a lower speed.

I'm not sure about the compressor, but I'd imagine it is similar. Less heat build up from moving parts = higher efficiency, right? But, thats more of a guess.

[Xringer]

Originally Posted by Daox

Every spec I've seen for a fan shows that they decrease with efficiency as their speed increases. So, at least for the fans I'd say that it is more efficient at a lower speed.

I'm not sure about the compressor, but I'd imagine it is similar. Less heat build up from moving parts = higher efficiency, right? But, thats more of a guess.

The reason I'm questioning the wisdom of quiet mode is because
I wonder if it might be upsetting the balance of the heat exchange loop.

To get the near the same BTUs out of the inside unit, at very low fan speeds,
Seems like it's going to require Hotter R410A to be pumped inside.
How do we get hotter refrigerant? By sucking more heat out of the outdoor air.
That is done by a faster running compressor and outdoor fan..?.

So, maybe the firmware of the Sanyo (when fan speed is set to Auto),
maximizes the transfer of outdoor air-heat to indoor air-heat.?.

Maybe letting it do it's own thing (auto-fan) is more efficient?

Is using quiet mode sorta like driving my 6 speed auto transmission Ford around town using L ow gear?

[Xringer]

Using the built in sensor didn't work so well.
Switched back to the remote sensor.
It seems this unit is made for a Big Room, not a whole house.

I've found that setting the remote to 70 degrees and
placing the remote in the living room works very well.
The living room stays dead on 70.. (If the remote not in the air stream).

But, Over-shoot in some areas can be a problem.
To make the Sanyo hit a certain temperature in a certain room,
I can compensate by adjusting the vent angle and remote Temp setting.
Of course an IR remote Repeater would solve the 'room' problem,
but where's the fun in that?

For now, I placed the remote in the hall (on top of the existing T-stat)
and ended up using 66 degs for the sleeping set-back.
Woke up this AM and it was 68 in the bedroom and 70 in the hallway. Nice!
The outside temps last night were in the high 20s and I believe the Sanyo never noticed..
It's so quite, I would not be able to tell if the outdoor unit was running real fast or not.

Need a 230V power usage monitor.. Otherwise, I'm not going to know
at what temperatures using the oil heat becomes cheaper..
(Because I'm not going outside to watch the meter when it's 16 degrees)!
I wonder if I could get a T.E.D. for Christmas? And put it on those two
new 230V wires in the breaker box??
So far, we have used Zero gallons of oil for heating. (Hot water only)..

We like it!!

[AC_Hacker]

Just out of curiosity, how many square feet are you heating with your unit?

As I recall., it's a 24,000 BTU model, right?

Regards,

-AC_Hacker

%%%%

[Daox]

Ah, I see your point about the balancing and the increasing temperatures to the indoor heat exchanger. It will be interesting to see what is most efficient. I'd imagine compressor energy usage massivly trumps fan energy usage. So, it might be most efficient to have that thing blasting away? Let us know!

[Xringer]

Originally Posted by AC_Hacker

Just out of curiosity, how many square feet are you heating with your unit?

As I recall., it's a 24,000 BTU model, right?

Regards,

-AC_Hacker

%%%%

Not counting the basement, the house has about 975 square feet.
When you count the add-on-den (288 sq ft) the total is 1263 square feet.
During sleeping hours, the den doors are shut.

Closing the doors of the two small bedrooms (one is my PC room),
means we don't have to heat another 128 sq ft..
975 - 128 = 847 sq ft of heating space during sleeping hours.

So, this 24,000 BTU Sanyo (30,000 heating) should be able to do the job..

When the weather isn't too cold (like this week), this unit can easily heat the whole 1263 sq ft.

~~~
Now, the oil burner seems to be coming on once about every 8 to 12 hours.
It takes about 20 minutes to come up to temperature.

Besides the cost of oil, I think there is an extra benefit with the Sanyo.
When the oil burner is running, it's sucking many cubic feet of cold air,
inside our house!

The Sanyo, warms the existing air inside the house..

~~~
FULL POWER:
When it really gets cold, the oil burner normally runs a lot of hours per day..
At 1 GPH, it's buring about $2.50 in oil and electrical power per-hour.

If the Sanyo runs at full power, using 2.5 KW, at 20 cents a KWh,
that's about 50 cents an hour.

I'm retiring these guys.. (Who cost about 75 cents an hour to run)!

But, have served us well during times when it was not yet cold enough to turn on the oil heat.
And also helped out with the den where the baseboard output is undersized for the room.