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Solar Mini-Split

glenn bradley

glenn bradley

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SoCal
My buddy who helped me build my shop is building a shed / shop building. About 16' x 24' IIRC. At any rate he decided to try one of these solar HVAC units. He lives in the high desert, we live in the low. The sun only shines 345 days a year so what could go wrong?
Dan-Shed (1).jpg
The outdoor unit looks a lot like my Pioneer units.
Dan-Shed (2).jpg
It has this extra doo-dad to loop in the solar panels on the roof. He plans to encapsulate that ground strap for environmental protection.
Dan-Shed (3).jpg
Hard to get a good shot of the panels.
Dan-Shed (4).jpg
Here's the indoor unit.
Dan-Shed (5).jpg
It is smart enough to know when the solar requirement is being met and runs on just solar during that period.
Dan-Shed (6).jpg
When the low threshold is hit it switches over to grid power. Here's the unit label if you want to geek out on it.
Dan-Shed (7).jpg
I'm going to help him with the ceiling drywall and maybe the outside paint. The taping and mud work is on him because he used to do that in one of his previous lives and actually enjoys it(???). I may go up and help him with the interior painting if he decides to do that. I am pushing him that direction and owe him a lot of payback for the work he did on my shop.
 
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I did look into them a while back, but there weren't that many places selling them, so prices were quite high yet. Since I need to replace the one in my office I'll have to re-visit them. With the addition of the one at the guest house, my wife's office, my office, and soon to be craft/pottery studio, our electric bill has crept up and up over the last couple of years.

Do you know how many and of what size of panels he has installed for it?

Looks like it is the 12k btu version, $1544...
signaturesolar.com

EG4 12k BTU Hybrid Solar Mini-Split

EG4 hybrid mini-split offers highly efficient 12k heating and cooling system, designed for spaces around 650 square feet, raising the bar for energy efficiency.
signaturesolar.com signaturesolar.com

The 24k btu is on sale at $1,899, but still have to get panels and the do dads...
signaturesolar.com

EG4 Hybrid Solar Mini-Split Air Conditioner Heat Pump AC/DC| 24000 BTU | SEER2 21| Energy Star Certified | Plug-n-Cool Do-It-Yourself Installation

24,000 BTU Hybrid Solar Mini-Split Air Conditioner Heat Pump: Energy Star certified for eco-friendly cooling/heating, designed for easy DIY installation.
signaturesolar.com signaturesolar.com

Comparatively, this is the one I've had on my list to get for my shop area, $1,199...
senville.com

24000 BTU Mini Split Air Conditioner - Heat Pump - SENL/24CD

The Senville SENL/24CD mini split air conditioner and heat pump offers superior climate control, energy efficiency, and Alexa compatibility. Stay comfortable year-round with this eco-friendly solution.
senville.com senville.com
 
Vaughn McMillan said:
Looks like a cool unit. (We just got a 7.6 kW solar system installed yesterday.)

That said, I'd be wary of anyone who claims to enjoy drywall taping and mudding. There's something fundamentally wrong with that person. :rofl:
Click to expand...
No kidding. I even offered to hire someone to do it in order to pay him back for some of the work he did for me. He insisted that he wanted to do it. Life has got to be really boring in the high desert I guess :D
Darren Wright said:
I did look into them a while back, but there weren't that many places selling them, so prices were quite high yet. Since I need to replace the one in my office I'll have to re-visit them. With the addition of the one at the guest house, my wife's office, my office, and soon to be craft/pottery studio, our electric bill has crept up and up over the last couple of years.
Click to expand...
His biggest challenge was that it took a couple of months to ship and then took 7 days to get to Cali from Texas . . . realizing I can jump in my car and get to Dallas in about 20 hours. We had some medical issues so I was a couple of months late getting up to help him with the building. In a weird twisted way that all kind of worked out

I believe there are only three panels but, they are each about the size of a ping pong table. That's a bit of an exaggeration but they are the largest roof mount panels I have ever seen. The mounting system is really heavy duty and very well designed. It's getting them on the roof that is the challenge. Once you're up there things go together very smoothly. I'm reporting this second hand.
 
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Not related to this conversation, but to one of your pictures. Your mini-split outdoor unit is far too close to the wall and it's impacting the air flow through it significantly. This raises the coil temperature and lowers the
efficiency. About 18" is considered "close". What I'm seeing in that photo looks to be 6" gap or close to that, so about 1/3 of what it should be. Turning this outside unit 90 degrees where it is would fix the problem and work well, if you can't increase the space from the wall to the unit. In most cases, mounting these units at 90 degrees to the wall, if is isn't blocked on either side of it, is the best way for the unit to work at it's maximum efficiency. Free air flow through the coils keeps the outside coil functioning properly and at it's design pressure. Raise the pressure due to poor air flow and the compressor needs to work much harder and draw more electric power. This is true for both Summer and Winter for these, and even other kinds of heating and cooling units. They need good air flow in order to work properly.

I once owned a HVAC service and have installed these, as well as other heating / cooling systems. Times and products available have changed since then, but not the principles of air flow and refrigeration systems.

Charley
 
@Charles Lent - Thanks, I thought the same. I also have wall brackets for my outdoor units but mine set the unit much farther from the building. He is going to move his unit to a ground pad but for noise as opposed to airflow. I will let him know about the potential clearance issue and he can kill two birds with one stone.
 
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