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41 Comments
It’s great to get this, I’m subscribed With notifications, but haven’t had a video in a while.
Always nice to watch and dream from the city! Maybe one day my husband and I will be able to get out of here.
(feel better!)
Three years ago I added 1”foil backed foam boards 4’ x 8’ sheets to my attic wall. I have a high ceiling in the living room. The pink panther’s battens had about 3” air gap’s I could see the drywall. I used the foam board to ease the insulation back in to the drywall. My electric bill is down by 2/3rds. I also did my room over the garage. Insulation is key. Thanks for your input on the HVAC you have.
It got down to -10 degrees here in the Ozarks and our mini splits worked all the way through this cold spell. I am a bit undersized so the house did get down to 63 degrees but it was extremely cold.
Also in ETX, I have a Mr Cool 24k dual head unit on a 1000sqft barndo and a 12k on a separate office space. Both did great during the cold snap. Couldn’t believe it
When we were building our house, we rented a house. The house was built in the 40s, hardly any insulation.
The entire house had just one of those heaters. The living room was warm, but the rest of the house was very cool. It finally gave out so our landlord replaced it.
Our house has a 3 ton Traine. The walls are R19, the attic is R53. I had all the interior walls insulated during the build as well.
We keep our house at 68 and my dad keeps his apartment (connected to our house) at 72. Our heat A/C is one unit, but it’s split so the apartment can have its own temperature settings.
I believe our highest bill was $140 and we’re builders every 2 months. Our home is 2220 sq ft.
WOW, you folks keep your house cool, My thermostat is always set to 75, I have a portable HVAC and the heat pump stop heating when the temp outside reached 45 degrees 🙁 . and only heats to a max of 77 degree. I need a mini split
Very informative! I had always wondered how these Mini Splits would do in single digit temps. Color me impressed! I'm convinced these are the way to go.
Was the Innovair unit self contained (pre-charged lines) like the Mr. Cool units for DIY installation? Thanks for sharing 🤠
I've got the Mr. Cool central ducted mini split system and it did fine down in the 10Fs when the arctic blast hit. Rarely used aux heat. I was amazed. The unit that was set to 72, did that happen to be a Mr. Cool? One thing I've noticed with the Mr. Cool minis, is they tend to have a moving target of a set point, they seem to hover in the 2-3F degree range from the set point. I ditched the supplied controller on mine and went with a Honeywell VP 8K therm, maintains set point perfectly.
iPhone can record screen out of the box! No need to find an app. Settings-> control center, then toggle “screen recording” to add it to your screen
They can work at much lower temperature than that. There is still heat in negative temperatures. Awesome little units.
ARE YOU RUNNING YOUR SOLAR?
I too have Mini Splits. Did not really get to see the efficiency during the worse conditions of the winter storm that we just encountered. I live in rural Tennessee and it was 0 degrees outside but the power company was having all kinds of problems keeping the power so we could NOT run our mini splits. Thank God I have a 18,000 btu Mr Heater and a 30,000 BTU Mr Heater in the living area. We would have been in serious trouble without the backup source of heat. I also have no water inside my house right now plumbing pex lines are frozen ! Luckily I have water to a frost free spigot outside where I can obtain water. But back to the mini splits they are very nice I have 4 heads within our house. They are Mitsubishi's I really like them and they do seem to be pretty efficient. I have R-38 insulation in the walls and ceilings in a barndominium. Glad you made the video to inform folks. The mini splis off a way to keep temps within different areas at different temps or tun the individual heads off. That is a really nice feature.
Good vid. I use Senville 9000BTU mini-spirt HSPF5 7.8/HSPF4 10 on 7 x 14 cargo trailer + whole house 3yr old, Lennox 4-ton forced-air, HSPF 10.20, heat-pump for the house. I've seen both work down to 25F (as low as it gets' for us) to maintain 75F so they work but power use goes way up. The whole house unit struggles to raise the temp with 25F outdoor from 70F nighttime to 73F daytime. If you ever find a power vs temp curve – that would be of interest 🙂
Do they have any kind of emergency heat package to them?
How much do those mini splits cost? The ones that you bought are two different brands? Which one do you think did the best job and where did you get them?
Are you working in your profession of architecture and what is that in single-family housing or commercial? I’m within 100 miles Northeast Texas.
Was wondering if you kept your wood stove going as well? We have a Daiken mini split in our very poorly insulated garage conversion and that thing is a beast! Inside we added a wood stove that heats the house find most of the time but we did have to use some heat from the HVAC during the worst of the cold but the stove kept it from having to run continuously and never catching up until very early in the morning when of course the wood ran out. We aren't as DIY as you but totally want to add a couple of these for just the areas that we use the most.
some do – mine didn't and the pipes froze.
I installed a 12k minisplit in my garage where my battery banks are and set it to 62 degrees , in normal times its warms using around 750-850 watts . On Thursday when the temps went from 50 dergrees to 7 degrees in maryland the thing jumped up to 1500 watts and was struggling to maintain 62 .. it is very drafty in the garage and i have issues to address hopefully after i address those issues it will balance back to 750-850 watts
I bought that exact Innovair from Signature Solar over a year and a half ago. Hoped to get it installed last spring. But as usual didn't get to it. So hoping this spring will get it installed. They have one that can run strictly on solar panels no inverter or battery needed. Can also run on grid power or both. Might get one of those also…… Jeff
Great info on the performance of these units. It would be interesting to know, exactly, how much heat (kwh) you're getting at the head unit inside for those kwh you're putting into the unit, at those low temps. I'm sure its better than a simple baseboard, but how much better?
We have them and love them
Thank you
We have a 2100 sq ft split level home. It had original cadet heaters throughout, which are not efficient. I had been wanting to get a mini split for years and we finally ordered a MrCool DIY 24K BTU unit in June 2021. We wanted a 36K BTU unit, but they were sold out. My husband installed it in July and wow…what a difference!! It isn't able to keep temperatures 100% consistent throughout the house, but we knew that when we bought it. A single air handler simply can't realistically reach rooms that are far away from it. The closer to the air handler you are, the more drastic the effect, but it really does help to keep the whole house warmer or cooler in general too. We feel it was a great investment! Might look at replacing it in the future with a bigger unit that has multiple air handlers.
What are you using to measure your power consumption?
they are great systems and super quiet but keep an eye on your inside blower drums because they will get dust and mold caked up in them and not blow air as efficient. After a year of using mine I noticed that one was not blowing very hard and looked up in there with a flashlight and it was a mess.
Last December I replaced my 25kw electric heat strip furnace with 3 mini-split units. When they all operate at the same time they work at 3.5kw
That means I can run all my mini-splits for 7 hours straight for every 1 hour of the old furnace.
The computer system controlling the unit's defrosting is the key; modern technology at its finest.
So are your 30kwh eg-4 battery bank enough to run all your electrical needs plus those two heat pumps for a 24h period?
Sorry I'm late I can't wait till I get my mini split
You say you moved from Michigan to Texas I'm right here in Toledo Ohio it sucks here cloudy for a whole month straight barely any solar at all but I'm holding on I'm trying to move somewhere down south myself eventually.
So by kicking up the thermostat you are encouraging the units to run more.
As an fyi, optical thermometers aren't accurate enough for precisely measuring system performance, only for approximation.
I installed one on my RV. It's the Pioneer 9k model. I love it. It's so quiet and very energy efficient. Got the WiFi adapter with it too.. and can turn it on and off and set schedules from anywhere with an internet connection. I'm a Truck driver and can preset it to be warm or cold before I get home. Will get it powered by my solar system this summer.
When your Mr Cool takes a crap and they can't support you with tech support or parts just understand that it's a rebranded Gree unit. You can always try and get support if you can figure out which model Gree unit they just rebadged
They don't work well in Minnesota. You will need a backup source unless you want them to operate at 1 to 1 at an average of 10 degrees. I've got Fujitsu Halcyons at 13. Don't EVER buy Fujitsu. I've got 42,000 BTU in an efficient house. At 0 degrees average outside temp they put out about as much as 6 people exhaling at each unit and the house will be 50ish degrees, and if it gets cooler, forget it. You WILL NEED a backup heat source, so don't get rid of your natural gas, or be ready to buy a bunch of space heaters. So, If you get up North, be careful. I will never break even based on expected life and required service (at least on Fujitsu). Good luck!
COP of gas burning furnaces is a max of 97%. As in, $1 of energy in, 97 cents of heat out.
The electric furnace is 1-1. Most modern heat pumps are way more efficient, losing efficiency (closer to 1-1) at 0F.
I would like to try these in the garage we just built. I am just not sure about the technology. We got down to -35F windchill close -50. I don't expect it to be super warm but have to be able keep above freezing during a time like this.
Take care of that cold.😊
My 24K MRCOOL diy was putting out 115’f air at 25’f outside. Pretty insane. I live in Tyler so somewhere near you I think you said.
I have ecoer 3ton heat pump for Central air heating and cooling also a gas furnace and I still think that it is cheaper to run the gas furnace since the electricity is around 19 cents per KW and the gas it less than a $1 for a therm .