No, it wouldn't make sense there either. I was responding to a post in the Lets see your Bikes thread (thus the picture), not sure why it got moved in the first place, but I imagine someone complained. You can just delete it. Thanks Heidi!
That will be quite the project, taking out everything. How many years of service did their existing system serve?
Existing oil is late 90’s. The blower motor I don’t know but it old school belt driven. Ac is at 17 years.
I’ll join this thread. I just finished the upgrade to mini split heat pumps at our old farmhouse with a cottage/house on the property. The last two years had heating oil (steam radiators) costing me 5k and 6k respectively in oil. I have 3 outside units. Each one controlling two inside units. One of the inside units is an attic mount with air handlers to cover a separate “wing” guest area. Still waiting on the quote to come back on getting the boiler from the early 80s replaced. In Vermont, we are keeping a secondary source of heat just in case. The heat pumps are supposed to work to -20°F but performance drops considerably as temperatures drop. I’ll keep everyone posted on performance. The AC in the bedroom has been nice and quiet though. And I haven’t had to lug 6 window units out of the basement and install them this year so there’s that. Lenny Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I hated just installing the 1 window AC unit in my office. And hated the floor space it took up when it was heating season (small house). I can't imagine doing the move/install with 6 window units.
will do. I’m a month out. Going to be draining the oil and giving it to people in 5 gallon increments. Cheap it was not, but I did receive a small rebate.
Lennyzx11 yes please post as many details as possible.. type of spaces footage etc etc. As your house seems closer to my house in function. I have friends in Hardwick that installed a double system on a ranch. Their one complaint is that the basement They still have to use the dehumidifier As the temperature differences do not allow the system to run because There is not a great enough difference in the temperatures to run the dehumidifier.
I also run a dehumidifier but am putting in a hot water heater heat pump that is “supposed “ to make up for the dehumidifier. My boiler heated an indirect water tank originally but I turned that off and replumbed the original electric hw heater that was there. I have the new fancy hw heater sitting there to swap out but waiting to see if the guys that will do the furnace will just plumb it all in. I’ll post details as I get things lined out a bit. This was a big ticket item but we had planned for it as being a one time purchase at our age. With me traveling and her absolutely refusing to go down into that 1790s era basement, I want to not worry about it while I’m on the road. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Another reason a mini split is better than window unit air conditioners: When opening windows for overnight natural cooling of the house, and a skunk stinks up the neighborhood, you can close the windows and let the mini split both keep the air cool and scrub out the skunk smell from the house
Yep, I woke up shortly after midnight yesterday morning to that delightful smell permeating the house. By the time I got up for realz yesterday morning, the fragrance had dissipated and I was able to open the windows for a couple more hours. Don't get me wrong, I like skunks, just not the stink. Don't have to worry about that issue this week. With the lows supposed to be in the high 60's / low 70's and high humidity, no windows will be opened at night.
I had a Samsung system installed in June. 36K Max Heat unit outside with a 15K unit downstairs and two 7K units upstairs (1 in each bedroom). Ability to add one more 7K if I want. This week was the real test and boy do these systems deliver! Silent and the house has never been this comfortable inside during high heat/humidity that we have had since Sunday. The window units could never keep up in this weather. Not much info on Samsung online but Samsung HVAC is said to be very different (better) than the home window units. I really hope so aa I was unable to get Mitsubishi or Fujitsu due to backorders. Samsung was also almost 2K cheaper than similar Mitsubishi system. The included wifi app also is a plus that I really didnt think I would use but find it very helpful. Heck I can control each inside unit from anywhere on my phone. On Mitsubishi a $150-200 wifi module would have to be added to each inside unit, so there is another $450-600 savings. Finally, the Max Heat units were available from Samsung where Mitsubishi were not-no ETA. While the standard Mitsubishi were backordered but should have been available at some time. The Max Heat Samsung qualifies for $1415 rebate while the standard units do not due to less efficiency. Hopefully that rebate check comes...... Overall, the system is new but I am happy with it.
Glad you are happy with it - and yeah, that should be much better than window units (better = cheaper to run and more consistent temps). I know I was really surprised by consistency and the noise reduction in my office was dang near priceless. Looking up the Max Heat, it can be run down to -13* - that is awesome! When I was doing research, I thought about Samsung. but IIRC they hadn't been in the game long and I believe the reviews were less than stellar. I also didn't have anyone come out that dealt with them (I don't think, at least no one brought them up). Just finding any companies that would come out here was a challenge. I don't have the app connectivity and really don't need it. If I am in the house, I am in 1 of the 2 rooms that have a head unit 90% of the time. And even when I'm not, I need all the exercise I can get so walking the 10-20 steps to the remote is keeping me healthy . That doesn't even take into account the amount of times I don't even know where my phone is - although I am getting better with that this summer just because of different projects I'm having done so actually expect people to call / text me. I did think about adding a remote thermostat for the main head, but decided it wasn't worth the extra $ and am still happy with that decision. But, if I had a larger house, that may have been more of a concern.
I was seeing similar on Samsung and was leery of using them but spoke with service technicians from a different company than I was using to ask their experience with the brand. General comments were that all brands are good, depending on the install. One tech told me his son had a Samsung system with no issues. Really hoping this is all true but I do have the 5 year full coverage from installing company and 12 year Samsung warranty. I did read that Samsung has actually been an innovator in the systems years ago but fell behind in efficiency vs other brands progressed in that area over the years. The current systems have very similar efficiency numbers as Mitsubishi so that helped my decision as well. My biggest concerns are the increased electronics in the systems, I prefer simple over complicated. The Samsung system required an inline surge protector for the outside unit that is optional on Mitsubishi. I would have opted to install a protector, but requiring leads to the increased electronics concerns. Would have gone Mitsubishi or Fujitsu if they were available, but ............
I'm glad I found this thread. Here's my starting point- I have a natural gas forced hot air system with ducting in place. Never really did that great a job in my opinion. I essentially use the wood stove for all of the heating needs unless we're away for a few days in the winter, in which case I set the temp to like 58 or something and just let it run. So last Monday I go down into the basement to do some laundry only to find my hot water heater spitting water out through the night. Probably 100 gallons or so on the floor. A good buddy of mine who's a plumber came that night to give me a hand disconnecting it and helped me order a new one. We installed in just this weekend and at one point he goes "Bro... what is going on with this ducting? This is terrible." And that set me off in a new direction and here I am in the heat pump thread. Right now we're considering a mini split system and getting rid of all the ducting and the old furnace. We'll see how this goes.
Do you have AC also right now or would that be a bonus extra if you go the mini split route? My guess is that it would be cheaper to replace your furnace with another forced air furnace and beef up (or insulate) your ducting. On the other hand, it might be more comfortable heat wise with a mini split (and cheaper, maybe significantly so, to run overall). Also being able to remove ducting would be nice. Keep us informed.
The buzz saw I ran into with this when my wife and I were considering installing a central air compressor was that we'd need to install an additional and substantially sized return to run from the upstairs down into the basement- and we don't have that kind of space I can find. What I found myself weighing were a series of "if this.... then that..." scenarios with my current set up- essentially if I want to keep the gas furnace I don't even use now, I need to run all new ducting and have it done right, or just scrap the junk pile the previous owner slapped together and finally get it done right. Which brings me right back around to eyeballing these mini split systems and thinking that's probably the way to go. I was just up in Newfoundland, Canada and all my cousins up there run mini splits in their houses for heat, and they know a thing or two about lengthy winters. The basement / garage is overrun with what amounts to an upside down octopus of ducting that's running all over the place. I think I'm just trying to talk myself into doing the mini splits and be done with it. My wife starts working from home later this month and being able to heat/cool a single room to her likes during the day might be a nicer trade off than trying to heat and cool the whole house. I'm going to be running the wood stove all winter anyway, so maybe by taking a little bit of the edge off of the shoulder seasons saves me half a cord might be enticing too. Last bit I've been holding onto is we have solar panels and don't run an electric bill year in and year out- so I guess I'm again answering my own question.
With your wife starting to WFH, Extra work being needed for a traditional furnace upgrade, and having solar, it sounds like mini-split is the way to go. I can't tell you how invaluable the unit in my office has been since I had my system in last year. When you talk to installers about placing the unit in her office, especially if it is a fairly small room, discuss the extra A/C needs for the electronics being on for 8+ hours. You may want to slightly oversize that unit just to be on the safe side. Don't let them do just what looks good on paper, a lot of them don't realize just how much heat those things produce when running for hours. Heck, I didn't realize how much until the summer of 2020, which helped me judge what I needed versus what most were suggesting.
