Heating/Cooling Minisplit Advice (Sloth???)

SO the MrCool is installed. I ended up doing and undoing several things Like putting putting purple 3" insulation board ontop of the silver and FRP on top of it. LOL I only had 3 bolts long enough to make it through to the outside of the container wall and 4 self tappers and just was not in the mood to spend 2 hours going to town and getting longer bolts. Going to put the insulation and FRP back up, just going to cut out around the inside part of the inside unit.


I ran a temporary 10/2 line on a 30amp breaker to it from the Machine shed box. It is supposed to be 12/2 on a 20amp breaker. My Electrician is going to swap the 8 breaker machine shed box over to the container and run a 100amp service over from the disconnect box ( it has two 200amp and four 100 amp breakers in it it with 2 open 100s) I don't mess with installing the breaker boxes but do everything from the boxes on. So once the machine shed has its new box and 24 breakers on its 200amp service and the container has its own 100 amp service and 8 breakers all will be good. Then I will run wire in conduit out to power it. For now just solid 10/2 and a 30amp breaker will do.

Wiring was so simple even a Ed Could do it The quick connects and opening the gas valves easy.



Now how does it work? Well it started at 115 degrees inside the container when the install was done. 30 minutes after turning it on it was down to 83 degrees. Two hours after install when I popped back in it was down to 68 degrees and holding. It has a manual option on the outside unit to cool below 68 degrees. The power draw.... or lack of is impressive it is drawing less power running wide open than a 5000btu standard window A/C. I put a LG Mini Split 20,000 BTU window/wall unit in the Cabin to replace the old LG 20k unit that was dying a slow painful death. The MrCool heat pump draws almost the exact same as the LG and cools faster and better. So Zero complaints there.

As mentioned in many videos and reviews the remote for the MrCool works but has a lot of room for improvement in the quality department........ Mainly the battery cover! You touch the damn cover and it falls off! My solution for that was a couple of tabs of duct tape LOL. The blower speeds are bit on the slow side even on the high setting....... then I found the Turbo setting It blows hard! The regular fan speeds are great however once things are cooled down.

I am ultimately going to move the outside unit over to the concrete pad behind the machine shed and bolt it down there or make a new pad ontop of the rock platform I threw up for it to sit on now.

Once I got the container cooled down to 68 I experimented with the heat side of it. It blows hot air and I can't see any reason that it would have any problem keeping the container at 70 degrees year round.

I am going to run this one until this time next year and then make a final decision on whether to buy 3 more of the 12ks and the 36k 4 zone for the the new pole house. Trust but Verify and all that I don't want to dump ten grand into something that proves not to be what it initially seemed to be.

A few notes on Container installs. Forget the hardware it comes with unless you have a wood frame and solid wall covering. Self Tappers are great, but the container steel smokes them. Drill Pilot holes then use the self tappers or appropriate screws. I used a saber saw to cut out the hole for the lines. Smoke a standard metal blade in the first inch of the cut. I got the hole cut using one of my carbide metal blades and pretty much ruined it as well before the hole was finished. WEAR EYE PROTECTION when cutting hot little grains of coarse sand size metal flakes fly every where. Best I can compare cutting container steel to is cutting thick galvanized. Didn't have to deal with this on the container I buried when cutting the vent and door holes.... I use a torch to cut those out, I thought it might be a real bad idea to use the torch with all of the insulation on the inside of the wall For drilling use the best metal bits you have, I started out drilling with my cheap metal bits and broke 2 before moving up to the much more expensive bits. It is not very thick steel but it is a very hard steel.

Would I recommend MrCool Units? Initially I would say it works as billed and took me around 2 hours total from box to up and running.... installing in a home with standard walls I would have been done in less than a hour. For a final positive or negative recommendation........ I will get back with you this time next year. The long term reviews I have seen all say at 12-18-24 Months the unit works as good as the day installed, so I am optimistic about it.

 

With no leaks and a yearly cleaning, you should get an easy 20 years. I put one on a sun porch for a customer in 1996 and they still brag about it.

 

I drill sea cans with a mag drill and slow speed with cutting fluid , done a few .
Sloth

 

I drill the Earth with a high speed hydraulic rig and water for lube, done hundreds.
Tempstar

 

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My installs make the professionals ones look like they were done by crackhead diy'ers.

 

Sam here , as Above .. Lost count of how many I've done.

 

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Been several here in kansas that wont heat during the winter. Something bout it gets to cold and freezes the heat pump. Know several hunting lodges had issues.

 

They are heat pumps, and even though the inverter technology helps, there just isn't enough specific heat in the air below 10 degrees or so for them to pull out. Most are just wasting power at 20 degrees.

 

I've heard that once the temperature starts getting below 30 ,, their efficiency starts dropping dramatically.

 

their efficiency starts dropping at freezing and below it gets dramatically worse ..as for heat , AC they work well into the 140F and above ..
If there on 410A gas , they do work well in Heat mode only with a different gas for sub zero areas. But who wants to live in a area of -35 to -50 (don't care if it is F or C ).
Sloth

 

I may do one just for cooling in the summer. Not sure how much more efficient they are than a window unit.

 

Way more , get a SEER 22 type in the Cooling range .
How big is the Area ? and how hot / humidity is the location