Power Outage? Don't Freeze! 🥶 Run your Heat Pump with a Portable Generator.
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- Опубліковано 19 жов 2023
- In today's video we try to help ensure you stay warm during power outages! We will show you each step we took during the EasyStart install on our heat pump.
No more freezing winters when the power is out- stay cozy with this essential HVAC upgrade! #HeatPump #GeneratorPower #EasyStartInstall
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![How Many Watts Does Your Generator Need![POWER YOUR HOME]](/img/n.gif)
Your video gave me the little nudge I needed to finally install the microair soft start on my 3 ton Amana 1 stage heat pump so I can run it with my Genmax 10500 inverter generator using propane. The starting inrush current is now around 25 amps with an LRA of 77. Once the heat pump is running along with my other base loads the generator is hanging out at 3600 watts. The heat pump doesn't use much more power than a portable space heater.
My heat pump set up looks very similar to yours except it has a diagnostics board that necessitated a couple extra steps in the beginning as outlined in the microair manual, but thankfully that part went smoothly enough, connecting the white and black wires to the heat pump for power, going into the micro air app and changing a couple settings, then turning the breaker off again, unhooking the white and black wires, and then doing everything the same as in your video.
Now the only thing I'm not sure if my generator can power is my old electric water heater. I've found the water is still warm enough to use for a day or two without power, but if longer outages were a regular concern I could see switching to lower power heating elements for ~$30. I'm intrigued by heat pump water heaters that use 15 amps or less but for now am happy to see how long my almost 25 year old tank can last with proper maintenance.
Excellent! I'm glad to hear you've had success.
For "generator mode", I'm in the process of adding a switch inside the house, at my furnace , to disconnect the white wire that comes from my heat pump. This will disable the aux heat-strips from kicking on and then once power restored, I can re-engage them with the flip of a switch. On generator, we operate our water heater on an as needed basis. The breaker remains off until we have started to exhaust the hot water. We then shutdown everything in the house , minus the base fridges, freezer, etc load, and turn the water heater breaker back on for 15 or so min. Once up to temp., that breaker gets shut back off.
Thank you for all you're feed back, it has brought things to my attention that will helped me to improve my setup.
Very best wishes, stay warm, and have a wonderful day!
@@thelarewsdo As a follow up to my experience of having the heat strips not activate during defrost cycles, at 17F this morning it was 3 degrees below the 99% design heating temp for my area and the heat pump successfully kept up with keeping the house at the desired temperature. It ran almost constantly from 9pm last night to 1pm this afternoon and per my emporia energy monitor the heat strips never had to kick in.
Great to hear from you and good deal! I've had similar results, but last night was 5F here so I bit the bullet and turned in the emergency heat. One thing I have found is if you were to bump your thermostat from say, 65 to 69, your thermostat may engage the aux strips because it "anticipates" not being able to meet the heating demand. (Depending on what the t-stat delta is set at) Something to test and keep in the back of your mind.
I'm looking in to Emporia. That looks like a really nice system! I'm running myeyedro at the gym and like it, but they are starting to require subscriptions for specific data and don't offer the individual circuit monitors.... nickel and dime a person to death.
Keep in touch and keep warm.
how many amps is your generator supplying? I'm looking at generator rated at 13,000 watts that Includes (2) 120V, 20 amp GFCI-protected duplex outlets, 120V/240V, 50 amp RV outlet, 120V/240V, 30 amp twistlock outlet, and 120V, 30 amp twistlock outlet. How would I use this to it's full potential?
I'd prefer if it could be tapped into so I could just direct wire 100 amps into my breaker box. I don't know if that's possible. Would I need to bring in the 50 amps into the house, and the 30 amps into the heat pump with the soft-start box? I think 50 amps in the house would work if we're careful. We have an inverter water heater that only uses 20% compared to a conventional water heater, a freezer, fridge, and a well pump. We have gas stove and dryer.
Hey,
Ours is a 7000 watts running and 8750 watts starting generator. That 30 amp twist lock is only capable of supplying ~7200 watts of power. Before purchasing a generator, I'd recommend simulating an "emergency" power outtage situation and using an amp clamp to see exactly how many amps you are drawing per leg on your main panel. Over-sizing the generator won't necessarily hurt anything except the larger engine will burn considerably more fuel and like you mentioned earlier, utilizing it's full potential with the current plug configuration could be tricky. With my setup, the generator is on a 30 amp double pole breaker so when the power goes out, I disengage my main breaker, start my generator and the bring it online with a contactor connected to the gen. breaker. This supplies power to our entire home and allows us to individually shut off breakers/appliances (hot water heater) that is not necessary to be on the generator all the time.
Hope this answers your questions. Let me know if you have any more.
Thank you for watching and supporting the channel.
Have a wonderful day.
Side note.....yep...the startup is smoother and not as "abrupt" and loud....but notice......the thin and flexible unit housing sheet metal often "buzzes" and "vibrates" to make its own noise. You would think by now with Noise-Harshness-Vibration (NHV)technology that car manufacturers use, even on cheap cars....there would be some attention and effort by the AC makers to address this. In some cases it would be as as simple as stamping the sheet metal with reinforcing ribs, etc. I sometimes have to loosen/retighten various access panels....or, adjust fitment not to vibrate against adjacent panels....or wedge some soft foam between places....just to stop the enclosure from vibrating and making its own noise. There is no excuse for this nowadays.
Hey,
I agree. They are almost there producing a complete product, but falter some on the details that pull everything together. Like you said, a few extra stiffening ribs or even $5 worth of adhesive backed rubber in proper locations would make a big difference on the vibrations and help with a quieter operation. 🤔 Phase 3 of my upgrades maybe ? lol. Cleaning ✅️, Easier Startup ✅️, Quietness ☑️
Thank you for watching!
Have a wonderful day.
@@thelarewsdo ..👍
Thank you for the video. While the easy start can get the AC/heat pump started, I wonder how much of an issue auxiliary heat strips running during defrost cycles would be. Since getting an energy monitor I've noticed that the air handler for my heat pump goes from 500 watts to 10kw for a couple minutes every couple hours when heating. The rest of the time my whole house including the heat pump usually draw under 5kw. I'm wondering if the heat strips would need to be disabled for the defrost cycle if on generator power without a 10kw+ genset and if that would mean physically disconnecting them or if there is a setting with the easy air or something else that could manage it.
Hey good question!
The way my system is set up I have auxiliary heating strips within the air handler that have to be manually turned on via the thermostat. It's set up as the emergency heat setting and the heat setting is just the heat pump. Normally, the heatpump defrost cycle is as follows, "The heat pump defrost cycle is a normal process that occurs when the temperature of the outdoor coil drops below 32 degrees Fahrenheit, causing frost to form on the coil.The defrost cycle temporarily reverses the operation of the heat pump and goes through a "cooling cycle," forcing warm air through the outdoor coil to warm it temporarily and melt away the frost. The cycle takes anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes, and in winter, cycles tend to be 30 to 90 minutes apart. During the defrost cycle, the outdoor fan will stop running"
👆This seems to be the process mine goes through. Could you're energy monitor be reading the spike created by the compressor load during the change over to the "cooling cycle"?
I tested my setup in the summer; now you have me thinking 🤔... I'm going to pick a good cold evening and test things out for an hour on generator power and see if the defrost cycle creates any issues. I'll let you know. Thank you for watching and supporting the channel.
Have a wonderful day!
My heat pump compressor and air handler are on separate circuits. I noticed via my emporia energy monitor that for the last few nights with temps in 20s/30s the air handler goes from 500 watts to 10kw for two or three minutes every 90 to 120 minutes which sounds like heat strip activation with defrost. The advice I've read is to unplug the white low voltage wire from the heat pump defrost junction box in order to stop the heat strip activation with defrost as the thermostat doesn't control it. I'll start with putting a cap on it to see how it works and if I want to keep it enabled when on grid power I may add a low voltage switch for the white wire either at the heat pump or by the air handler. The heat strips help heat the otherwise cold air for comfort but supposedly don't make a difference for the defrost process itself.
@@thelarewsdo I unhooked and capped the white low voltage thermostat wire from the heat pump defrost board and now defrost runs fine without triggering the heat strips. I haven't noticed any discomfort from the heat strips not running. It would be easy to reconnect if desired.
Excellent. I was doing some research after our last conversation and the heat strips are not necessary on defrost, they are more of a creature comfort to make sure the air moving through your home's vents isn't to cold while running a defrost cycle. I am looking into making a similar modification. That will definitely drop the power bill; making sure those 10kw strips aren't kicking on unless we want them to. No to mention, them puppies would stop my generator cold when they engage. Great catch.
Thank you and have a wonderful day!
This is why I am not switching to heat pump. I live in Canada and during a power outage, my 3.5k inverter can easily power my NG furnace as it only pulls 300w. I would need a 10KW+ generator to hope to power a heat pump. No thanks.
Hey,
Well yeah if you have access to NG then you'd be crazy to not use that. The only electrical demand is the circulation fan. We don't have that luxury so this upgrade gave us emergency heating options we've never had.
Stay warm up there and thank you for watching!