@@deepsea5107 hvacr tech here, I heat one of my rooms with a 2.5kw hyperheating, I can clearly see the difference between my cheaper lg and gree. It still blows warm even before the defrost cycle while all other ones loose their capabilities.
I have 3 senville units I just installed couple months ago. We are in fingerlakes of NYS. We got down to -3 degrees over Christmas, my units still performed perfectly. Was able to keep house at 72 no problem. Older place built in 1950. Same situation, only 2×4 walls. So far so good.
I have a senville mini split in the top of my barn and it did pretty good also. It was like - 39 with windchill and it stayed about 63 i. There. Im going to put 2 units with 3 zones and do away with my 3 ton OLD unit as well.
Thanks for the review. How much did you utility bill decrease by. I am "fixing up" (making livable) a pretty old house. Furnace is 20 years old and AC was stolen so I'm thinking about mini split.
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.
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.
I installed a Pioneer brand 18k btu unit in april. It performed superbly in cooling, and we have only used it for heat for a few days now, but I am extremely impressed so far. I would buy Pioneer again.
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.
I just installed a 18,000 BTU Mrcool yesterday. I bought it used, it's a 3rd gen. and it works great. Temp outside is 72 degrees so it's hard to tell much just yet. It did drop the bedroom 600 sq. ft. to 63 degrees in about 20 min. The heat pump works great also...
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.
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.
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
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.
All I can say is "impressive". I have a mini split that I purchased from a guy I knew 15 years ago but strictly for cooling. It was about that time (if I recall correctly) that I became aware of some units with heating capabilities. I was quite skeptical that they could heat a home in a cold climate with any modicum of efficiency and from speaking with people that had installed them, only became more convinced that I was right. That's all changed now. I've seen a number of video (thanks for creating this one) where these units are now capable of working in single digit temperatures and doing so fairly efficiently. I've since gone from skeptic to ordering one for our cottage.
We'll be using these in our house we're building. Walls will be R35 spray foam, and attic will be R60 loose fill. The one drawback is that they are electric-only. So, if you have a catastrophic weather event, your power might be affected. Would need a backup generator to be completely safe.
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.
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?
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.
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 :)
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
I think you confused COP with HSPF. They are not the same, and no heat pump puts out 14.75x the energy it takes in. A good ground source heat pump does a COP of 5, and an air source is lower.
The SEER and other numbers are often inaccurate coming from a manufacturer. They can be helpful when comparing units from different makers yet I have had the best luck oversizing a mini-split IF it is an inverter/multistage model. Its better to have a larger unit running on low than the opposite. A professional installer may well spout the drawbacks and danger of oversizing and urge you to do an energy audit yet I simply went larger on both my ductless and ducted mini-splits. Thanks for the video.
YES! If your mini-split is not going into DF (defrost) at least once per day in colder weather...something may be wrong. Google your particular unit and download a user manual for grins and giggles.
Innovair is on my radar, they are rated to provide 80%+ heating capacity at -22 degrees. I have LGRED mini-splits and they are only rated for 68% at -13
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!
Surprises me only because fujitsu are the jujitsu of inverters etc. personally, my experience with daikin heatpumps is that even in the low 10s (°c) is that you’re more likely to get into bed to stay warm. I spent last winter testing it against using the fireplace. Even if it was capable of keeping the warm, the electric use would be ludicrous
I am in the SLC and my Pioneer mini-split 21.5 SEER works great to 105 and heats well to -6 . 9000 BTU in a 160 sq ft RV, I do have 3,5 " rockwool insulation installed. My 2600 sq ft three level home is sporting a ACiQ 4 ton heat pump and is doing well despite just 2x4 walls. The heat pump IS sporting the "extreme Heat" option which I think cost a few hundred more and is supposed to work down to -22F, I have not tested that claim yet. I have no auxiliary 200v electric heat installed in the air handler. as we rarely go below zero F here . Very happy with ACiQ as a brand.
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
@@CountryLivingExperience Isn't it funny how different people like different temperatures? I keep my thermostat set on 64/65. Once in a while if I get cold I will bump it to 66, but then I'm too hot. At work they crank the heat, so I keep a fan handy! My house was built in the 60's & very drafty, but I stayed warm. The furnace is original to the house, so I'm lucky it still works. I did buy some sweatshirts this year & wore them everyday. I'm about 6 hours north of you in Oklahoma.
Wow 75 is very warm you must really have a big budget for electricity. When it is about 10° outside 68 inside feels really good. And too much heat can dry out your air and furniture.
Have you seen the new DC mini-splits from Signature Solar. They can be used without an inverter. Straight from PV to mini-split, no conversion loss either. Maybe just have small PV array just for powering those during the day, so your batteries get to charge up fuller. 24000BTU only takes 7-8 panels. Lot cheaper than batteries.
It's good to see Americans embracing reverse cycle air conditioners. Down under here I use reverse cycle Kelvinator window units and it was -1°C this morning, inside I have the unit in the lounge room (a 2.7kW unit) set to 17°C and it kept the whole place including 1 bedroom and an office room at 16°C no problem, don't even need to turn the second unit I have installed on.
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 .
These thrive on the differential. It’s super cooled refrigerant, many climates are potentially going to be less cool than it. If that is what you mean by “taking heat from the surrounds” then yah, i guess. Thermodynamics 🤷🏼♀️
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?
The prices depend on where and when you buy them. We bought our MrCool 24K BTU unit June 2021 and by the next year, the price had gone up significantly (over $600).
The Innovair 9k was $1300 from Sig Solar signaturesolar.com/innovair-mini-split-ac-heat-pump-9000-btu/?ref=countrylivingexperience and the MrCool 12k was $1800 from Lowes. The 18k MrCool dual zone was $2900. I got that one from Chill Mini Splits. So far they work equally as well as each other. No difference.
@@CountryLivingExperience that's very good to hear I can't wait to finish installing minds I messed up the first line set so I'm waiting on the new line set to get here.
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.
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
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 have a question about my mini split I bought a couple months ago the indoor wall unit when I place the fan motor on high it's not what you call high at all it has 3 settings pow medium and high right but high ain't nothing u can feel another thing I noticed it does blow real hard on high pass the remote setting of high if you have it on maximum heat setting between 80 and 85 degrees it blows very hard but when I try to put it on 70 to 75 77 or something it doesn't blow hard where you can really feel it it's like the high setting on the remote it's not high at all when it comes to blowing it's very low
@@CountryLivingExperience the low medium and high setting on the remote with the fan symbol does work but it's speed is like very low now the fan does blow fast and real hard when do you set your room temperature when u first turn it on but once it reaches room temperature that you set it on the fan speed drops rapidly it's brand new out-of-the-box if you turn just the fan on without the heat pump or air conditioner then the fan blows hard on high nice and strong but when you hit heat it's Lois way down and only blows hot when it went to
Pls tell us which bran of the 2 that you have would you purchase again after you’ve see their performance. Seems that the innovair claims Breyer numbers but the Mr. Cool performance was better. Correct?
Performance of both is great but the MrCool is more widely known and if you have problems, their technical department is much bigger and more capable of helping you. Plus, they are the only brand that is truly DIY.
Those crazy COP values must be in some imperial units and not in kW heat per kW electric, as the theoretical maximum is temperature difference in K/absolute temperature in K (so 10-ish for a 30 degree Celsius difference)... Typical SCOP values today are in the range of 3-4, and drop to less than 2 below freezing
Just to make sure I am not mistaken. So you're saying all 3 of those mini splits, running at the same time, use less electric than the single heat pump?
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 🤠
They are pretty amazing. The Innovair has the refrigerant inside the outdoor unit but the lines are not pre-vacuumed (charged). I had to hire a friend of mine who is an hvac tech to vac the lines for me and let in the refrigerant. I did everything else.
I'm running my whole home on just 5 350w panels lol and this mini split will be here Wednesday my biggest problem are the clouds and I only have four 120ah 12v batteries as 16 Lifepo4 cells in 24v a lil under 6000kwr but these clouds here in northwest Ohio is making this a struggle.
@@CountryLivingExperience I'm going to but I may have to move because I really have nowhere to put the extra panels I'm in the inner City so I'm trying to stack up on mostly the batteries
I have 46kWh now and it is just enough for 24 hours with the caveat that I was not doing laundry, cooking a lot, or taking 4 hot showers. It is about power management.
@@CountryLivingExperience , I ran a "Simple PV Load Calculator. My Summer is highest with 50,803 watt hours a day. But I calculated (3) split units running at a total of 4,000 watts for 8 hours a day (Equaling 32,000 watt hours a day). Perhaps this is a little overkill? I am not sure if this is way over doing it or not? I am building the home with the whole bottom walk out basement utilizing composite foundation and walls with a R-22 insulation value rather than going with poured concrete. Hard to figure this one out. My Winter load is coming out to 33,614 watt hours per day, the largest of which is the LP Gas and Furnace Fan (12,000 watt hours per day). This may be overkill as well. So I am a little stuck on trying to figure out what my real needs would be. From all the research I've done, I need 3 days of battery back up. A 150KW battery bank will certainly be out of my budget. Im thinking I may be better off going geothermal at first and investing in that to keep my KW needs down, and perhaps get away with a 50KW battery storage system to build up in the future piece by piece. Grid tied seems to be the best path for now?
@@krautkarch You can continue to build the battery up over time. Just keep buying them when you have the cash. That is how I am doing it. I started with 3 batteries and now have 9. I am going to expand more. I can get about 2 days but that is with an LP stove and not running the dryer.
@@CountryLivingExperience , thanks for the feedback! I am curious, do you just charge the batteries , then use then just discharge them daily down to say 20% , then have the system programmed to switch to grid power once you have discharged the batteries down?
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.
Mine are running great as well. I do have a wood stove. I like to use that for just the main space because of the feel of the wood heat.....very comforting.
@@CountryLivingExperience I noticed on my mini-split just running the indoor fan part circulates the heat really well in here without the outside part running at all if your wood burning stove is making it nice and warm then your mini-split head units on fan mode should circulate that heat
@@CountryLivingExperience Thanks for the quick response. I do like the concept of controlling the various zones of the house along with being able to use them on Off Grid Solar. I will be checking into these units. Quick questions, which one do you like better, Mr Cool or the one from Signature Solar? Does Signature have the option to add multiple air handlers to their condenser unit as well?
You're welcome. I like them both. The only difference is the Innovair is not technically DIY. You have to vacuum the lines. The Mr.Cool does not require an HVAC tech or any special equipment. The Innovair has only a single zone option.
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
That is precisely the problem with these things I had a Friedrich Breeze in a well insulated two-car garage but I use for home office the thing worked great for 6 years when it crapped out two weeks of frustrated service calls nobody could fix it nobody could get parts for it had to rip this thing out in the dead of winter and replace it with a Mr Cool unit in the meantime I was running 3,500 w electric floor heaters to maintain temperature in the building as I need the workspace so the cost initially seems great the monthly cost of electricity to operate it is really not bad but once you get into all these issues the ancillary costs the headache the replacement and of course the new units never match the space the old units came out of that's where the problems really start with these things especially when you mount the indoor units on the walls and then the replacement units don't fit the same spaces not to mention the joy of swapping this thing out when it's 5° outside that's my two cents the oil burner in my house has been working fine for 15 years with a little bit of routine maintenance every third year so up until recently it wasn't so bad except obviously now the oil costs are horrible
@@edklimas494 Friedrich 2 years ago was rebranding LG. I've been working the Ductless industry for the last 17 years. I've worked for Sanyo/Panasonic, Daikin, and now at Mitsubishi. If they are cheap online there is a reason. Buy the shit you truly know make their own products.
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.
We did fire up the wood stove for a while since it added that nice cozy wood heat. Same for us....the wood heat just allowed the mini-split to get a rest and shut down for a bit.
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.
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.
We've had our Mitsubishi HyperHeat for going on 5 years. It will still heat our house, even when outside temps are -20 F. We love it!
That is awesome!
these ductless mini air c heater i have in NY doesnt do well in 30 20 and lower degrees - they need to sell these better ones
@@deepsea5107 hvacr tech here, I heat one of my rooms with a 2.5kw hyperheating, I can clearly see the difference between my cheaper lg and gree. It still blows warm even before the defrost cycle while all other ones loose their capabilities.
I have 3 senville units I just installed couple months ago. We are in fingerlakes of NYS. We got down to -3 degrees over Christmas, my units still performed perfectly. Was able to keep house at 72 no problem. Older place built in 1950. Same situation, only 2×4 walls. So far so good.
That's awesome!
I have a senville mini split in the top of my barn and it did pretty good also. It was like - 39 with windchill and it stayed about 63 i. There.
Im going to put 2 units with 3 zones and do away with my 3 ton OLD unit as well.
Thanks for the review. How much did you utility bill decrease by.
I am "fixing up" (making livable) a pretty old house. Furnace is 20 years old and AC was stolen so I'm thinking about mini split.
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.
Very cool. You're welcome.
Attic wall? I cannot imagine what you're describing.
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.
That's awesome!
I installed a Pioneer brand 18k btu unit in april. It performed superbly in cooling, and we have only used it for heat for a few days now, but I am extremely impressed so far. I would buy Pioneer again.
Cool
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.
I just installed a 18,000 BTU Mrcool yesterday. I bought it used, it's a 3rd gen. and it works great. Temp outside is 72 degrees so it's hard to tell much just yet. It did drop the bedroom 600 sq. ft. to 63 degrees in about 20 min. The heat pump works great also...
That is awesome. Glad it worked great
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.
Wow, glad you had those backup heaters! That could have been bad without them.
We have them and love them
Thank you
Awesome!
You're welcome
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.
Nice!
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
They are amazing machines.
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
Thanks for the heads up. I am not a very tech savvy guy.
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.
They are amazing little machines.
All I can say is "impressive". I have a mini split that I purchased from a guy I knew 15 years ago but strictly for cooling. It was about that time (if I recall correctly) that I became aware of some units with heating capabilities. I was quite skeptical that they could heat a home in a cold climate with any modicum of efficiency and from speaking with people that had installed them, only became more convinced that I was right. That's all changed now. I've seen a number of video (thanks for creating this one) where these units are now capable of working in single digit temperatures and doing so fairly efficiently. I've since gone from skeptic to ordering one for our cottage.
We'll be using these in our house we're building. Walls will be R35 spray foam, and attic will be R60 loose fill. The one drawback is that they are electric-only. So, if you have a catastrophic weather event, your power might be affected. Would need a backup generator to be completely safe.
Sounds like a great hyper-insulated house.
We are on solar and have multiple backup options.
Mathias Wandel has an excellent video with his usual great data and analysis
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.
Awesome! 63 is still very good in light of the horribly cold weather we had.
What brand mini splits?
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?
Cool. It would be interesting to find out that info. Not sure how I could do that though.
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.
Cool.
Yes the unit set to 72 was a Mr Cool.
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 :)
Thank you.
Yep, my old 3 ton struggled at 32°f. It was terrible.
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
I have seen those EG4 inverter mini-splits. I am curious about them. Maybe I will contact them about one.
@@CountryLivingExperience Well keep me updated if/when you do.!
I think you confused COP with HSPF. They are not the same, and no heat pump puts out 14.75x the energy it takes in. A good ground source heat pump does a COP of 5, and an air source is lower.
As an fyi, optical thermometers aren't accurate enough for precisely measuring system performance, only for approximation.
Always wondered why not put heat pump in the celler.so it could use the ground temperature ?
The SEER and other numbers are often inaccurate coming from a manufacturer. They can be helpful when comparing units from different makers yet I have had the best luck oversizing a mini-split IF it is an inverter/multistage model. Its better to have a larger unit running on low than the opposite. A professional installer may well spout the drawbacks and danger of oversizing and urge you to do an energy audit yet I simply went larger on both my ductless and ducted mini-splits. Thanks for the video.
The computer system controlling the unit's defrosting is the key; modern technology at its finest.
Absolutely! It is some great tech.
YES! If your mini-split is not going into DF (defrost) at least once per day in colder weather...something may be wrong. Google your particular unit and download a user manual for grins and giggles.
They can work at much lower temperature than that. There is still heat in negative temperatures. Awesome little units.
They are truly amazing
Innovair is on my radar, they are rated to provide 80%+ heating capacity at -22 degrees.
I have LGRED mini-splits and they are only rated for 68% at -13
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!
Surprises me only because fujitsu are the jujitsu of inverters etc.
personally, my experience with daikin heatpumps is that even in the low 10s (°c) is that you’re more likely to get into bed to stay warm. I spent last winter testing it against using the fireplace.
Even if it was capable of keeping the warm, the electric use would be ludicrous
I am in the SLC and my Pioneer mini-split 21.5 SEER works great to 105 and heats well to -6 . 9000 BTU in a 160 sq ft RV, I do have 3,5 " rockwool insulation installed. My 2600 sq ft three level home is sporting a ACiQ 4 ton heat pump and is doing well despite just 2x4 walls. The heat pump IS sporting the "extreme Heat" option which I think cost a few hundred more and is supposed to work down to -22F, I have not tested that claim yet. I have no auxiliary 200v electric heat installed in the air handler. as we rarely go below zero F here . Very happy with ACiQ as a brand.
Good info here. Glad to see someone with real-world experience with these things.
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
I have been told I keep my house too warm...lol. These mini-splits are amazing for sure.
@@CountryLivingExperience Isn't it funny how different people like different temperatures? I keep my thermostat set on 64/65. Once in a while if I get cold I will bump it to 66, but then I'm too hot. At work they crank the heat, so I keep a fan handy! My house was built in the 60's & very drafty, but I stayed warm. The furnace is original to the house, so I'm lucky it still works. I did buy some sweatshirts this year & wore them everyday. I'm about 6 hours north of you in Oklahoma.
Try 72 degrees if you can stand it, heat pumps work pretty well at that setting.
Wow 75 is very warm you must really have a big budget for electricity. When it is about 10° outside 68 inside feels really good. And too much heat can dry out your air and furniture.
Have you seen the new DC mini-splits from Signature Solar. They can be used without an inverter. Straight from PV to mini-split, no conversion loss either. Maybe just have small PV array just for powering those during the day, so your batteries get to charge up fuller. 24000BTU only takes 7-8 panels. Lot cheaper than batteries.
I have. They look cool and the concept is interesting. I am thinking of how I can use one on my homestead.
It's good to see Americans embracing reverse cycle air conditioners. Down under here I use reverse cycle Kelvinator window units and it was -1°C this morning, inside I have the unit in the lounge room (a 2.7kW unit) set to 17°C and it kept the whole place including 1 bedroom and an office room at 16°C no problem, don't even need to turn the second unit I have installed on.
I embrace any tech that provides value. These mini-split units are very efficient and well worth the money.
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 .
These thrive on the differential. It’s super cooled refrigerant, many climates are potentially going to be less cool than it.
If that is what you mean by “taking heat from the surrounds” then yah, i guess. Thermodynamics 🤷🏼♀️
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?
The prices depend on where and when you buy them. We bought our MrCool 24K BTU unit June 2021 and by the next year, the price had gone up significantly (over $600).
The Innovair 9k was $1300 from Sig Solar signaturesolar.com/innovair-mini-split-ac-heat-pump-9000-btu/?ref=countrylivingexperience and the MrCool 12k was $1800 from Lowes. The 18k MrCool dual zone was $2900. I got that one from Chill Mini Splits. So far they work equally as well as each other. No difference.
Sorry I'm late I can't wait till I get my mini split
Like for giving me the hspf concept.
I didn't know it gets that cold 🥶 in Texas are the Mini splits ur only source for heating seems to be doing a good job keeping it comfortable
It sure does but not very often. I do have a wood stove for backup but the mini splits were working great.
@@CountryLivingExperience that's very good to hear I can't wait to finish installing minds I messed up the first line set so I'm waiting on the new line set to get here.
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.
That is very cold. I don't think they are rated to go that low. I think the max on many of these is -20F
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
Yep, it is all about the insulation and air intrusion.
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.
What was your bilk on the coldest month?
We just installed them. We are not in the coldest month yet. I also am on solar so it is mostly free.
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.
Wow! That is awesome performance. Yep, I am a bit south of Tyler.
@@CountryLivingExperience let me know if you’re up to having a visitor sometime! Not sure if you can send messages on UA-cam
I have a question about my mini split I bought a couple months ago the indoor wall unit when I place the fan motor on high it's not what you call high at all it has 3 settings pow medium and high right but high ain't nothing u can feel another thing I noticed it does blow real hard on high pass the remote setting of high if you have it on maximum heat setting between 80 and 85 degrees it blows very hard but when I try to put it on 70 to 75 77 or something it doesn't blow hard where you can really feel it it's like the high setting on the remote it's not high at all when it comes to blowing it's very low
Not sure what your question is exactly. Sounds like the high fan is not working.
@@CountryLivingExperience the low medium and high setting on the remote with the fan symbol does work but it's speed is like very low now the fan does blow fast and real hard when do you set your room temperature when u first turn it on but once it reaches room temperature that you set it on the fan speed drops rapidly it's brand new out-of-the-box if you turn just the fan on without the heat pump or air conditioner then the fan blows hard on high nice and strong but when you hit heat it's Lois way down and only blows hot when it went to
Pls tell us which bran of the 2 that you have would you purchase again after you’ve see their performance.
Seems that the innovair claims Breyer numbers but the Mr. Cool performance was better. Correct?
Performance of both is great but the MrCool is more widely known and if you have problems, their technical department is much bigger and more capable of helping you. Plus, they are the only brand that is truly DIY.
Those crazy COP values must be in some imperial units and not in kW heat per kW electric, as the theoretical maximum is temperature difference in K/absolute temperature in K (so 10-ish for a 30 degree Celsius difference)... Typical SCOP values today are in the range of 3-4, and drop to less than 2 below freezing
Just to make sure I am not mistaken. So you're saying all 3 of those mini splits, running at the same time, use less electric than the single heat pump?
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 🤠
They are pretty amazing.
The Innovair has the refrigerant inside the outdoor unit but the lines are not pre-vacuumed (charged). I had to hire a friend of mine who is an hvac tech to vac the lines for me and let in the refrigerant. I did everything else.
I'm running my whole home on just 5 350w panels lol and this mini split will be here Wednesday my biggest problem are the clouds and I only have four 120ah 12v batteries as 16 Lifepo4 cells in 24v a lil under 6000kwr but these clouds here in northwest Ohio is making this a struggle.
That is a tiny system. I think you are going to need to upgrade by a lot.
@@CountryLivingExperience I'm going to but I may have to move because I really have nowhere to put the extra panels I'm in the inner City so I'm trying to stack up on mostly the batteries
@@diysolaradventures7894 Ah, I understand.
Keeps my home warm to -30 c. Coldest i seen here
Awesome!
So are your 30kwh eg-4 battery bank enough to run all your electrical needs plus those two heat pumps for a 24h period?
I have 46kWh now and it is just enough for 24 hours with the caveat that I was not doing laundry, cooking a lot, or taking 4 hot showers. It is about power management.
How many KW of battery storage do you have?
Curious how big you would need to go to have 3 days of off grid power only?
I have 46kw. It all depends on your loads. What else are you running during that 3 day period?
@@CountryLivingExperience , I ran a "Simple PV Load Calculator.
My Summer is highest with 50,803 watt hours a day. But I calculated (3) split units running at a total of 4,000 watts for 8 hours a day (Equaling 32,000 watt hours a day). Perhaps this is a little overkill?
I am not sure if this is way over doing it or not? I am building the home with the whole bottom walk out basement utilizing composite foundation and walls with a R-22 insulation value rather than going with poured concrete. Hard to figure this one out.
My Winter load is coming out to 33,614 watt hours per day, the largest of which is the LP Gas and Furnace Fan (12,000 watt hours per day). This may be overkill as well.
So I am a little stuck on trying to figure out what my real needs would be. From all the research I've done, I need 3 days of battery back up. A 150KW battery bank will certainly be out of my budget.
Im thinking I may be better off going geothermal at first and investing in that to keep my KW needs down, and perhaps get away with a 50KW battery storage system to build up in the future piece by piece.
Grid tied seems to be the best path for now?
@@krautkarch You can continue to build the battery up over time. Just keep buying them when you have the cash. That is how I am doing it. I started with 3 batteries and now have 9. I am going to expand more. I can get about 2 days but that is with an LP stove and not running the dryer.
@@CountryLivingExperience , thanks for the feedback! I am curious, do you just charge the batteries , then use then just discharge them daily down to say 20% , then have the system programmed to switch to grid power once you have discharged the batteries down?
@@krautkarch You can to that but I am off grid and do not have AC in connected.
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.
Certainly more cloudy back there but many people make it work.
So by kicking up the thermostat you are encouraging the units to run more.
Only at first
What are you using to measure your power consumption?
Appears to be Emporia Vue. I have the same setup.
It is an Emporia Vue. We did a video about it here: ua-cam.com/video/Wwlk4i98k34/v-deo.html
Mines been running great are ur mini splits your only heating source?
Mine are running great as well. I do have a wood stove. I like to use that for just the main space because of the feel of the wood heat.....very comforting.
@@CountryLivingExperience I noticed on my mini-split just running the indoor fan part circulates the heat really well in here without the outside part running at all if your wood burning stove is making it nice and warm then your mini-split head units on fan mode should circulate that heat
Do they have any kind of emergency heat package to them?
Not that I know of. They work down to about -20°f
@@CountryLivingExperience Thanks for the quick response. I do like the concept of controlling the various zones of the house along with being able to use them on Off Grid Solar. I will be checking into these units. Quick questions, which one do you like better, Mr Cool or the one from Signature Solar? Does Signature have the option to add multiple air handlers to their condenser unit as well?
You're welcome. I like them both. The only difference is the Innovair is not technically DIY. You have to vacuum the lines. The Mr.Cool does not require an HVAC tech or any special equipment. The Innovair has only a single zone option.
@@CountryLivingExperience Fantastic, Thanks, Wishing you and your family a Happy and Prosperous New Tear!
@@larryb6759 You're welcome. Happy New Year
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
Thanks for the heads up
That is precisely the problem with these things I had a Friedrich Breeze in a well insulated two-car garage but I use for home office the thing worked great for 6 years when it crapped out two weeks of frustrated service calls nobody could fix it nobody could get parts for it had to rip this thing out in the dead of winter and replace it with a Mr Cool unit in the meantime I was running 3,500 w electric floor heaters to maintain temperature in the building as I need the workspace so the cost initially seems great the monthly cost of electricity to operate it is really not bad but once you get into all these issues the ancillary costs the headache the replacement and of course the new units never match the space the old units came out of that's where the problems really start with these things especially when you mount the indoor units on the walls and then the replacement units don't fit the same spaces not to mention the joy of swapping this thing out when it's 5° outside that's my two cents the oil burner in my house has been working fine for 15 years with a little bit of routine maintenance every third year so up until recently it wasn't so bad except obviously now the oil costs are horrible
@@edklimas494 Friedrich 2 years ago was rebranding LG. I've been working the Ductless industry for the last 17 years. I've worked for Sanyo/Panasonic, Daikin, and now at Mitsubishi. If they are cheap online there is a reason. Buy the shit you truly know make their own products.
That's all false buddy. You need to do some research.
@@dixie2675 yeah I don't know anything....
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.
We did fire up the wood stove for a while since it added that nice cozy wood heat. Same for us....the wood heat just allowed the mini-split to get a rest and shut down for a bit.
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.
I still do single family residential design on special occasions. I have worked in all facets of the profession.
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.
That’s awesome!
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.
Thanks for the heads up
some do - mine didn't and the pipes froze.
Oh no. Don't they have a defrost mode?
Sounds to me like they use a lot of electric, with my LP furnace my total KWH per 24 hrs for all electric use is 6 KWH. I'm in NYS.
63F indoors "relatively warm" is not comfortable.
lol
ARE YOU RUNNING YOUR SOLAR?
Both solar and grid. If there are too many cloudy days, I do not have enough battery storage to last.