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May as well post this here, but I got a few full month power bills in for the new mini split I talked about in the big heat pump post.
My kWh use is down 14% year on year (35 to 30Kwh/day, 918 vs 1067 total) despite only using electric heaters for supplementing the wood stove last year, vs for 100% of heating this November. Weather was slightly colder this year during most of November. Also a big chunk of one wall was uninsulated plywood this year, and I'm still using electric for one room and a shed.
This reinforces my point that electric baseboard is the 2nd worst form of heating known to man.
Because my electricity is $.113/kWh (with a variable adjustment of -.003/kWh), I'm only saving ~$17 per heating month so far. But that doesn't take the wood into account, and unfortunately that's very difficult without having direct measurements. If the switch was from full baseboard heating the savings would be significant even at this relatively low kWh price. Having AC now will of course increase my summer bills, but also significantly increase quality of life.
Overall it's been an unqualified success. Massively greater comfort, huge time saved not fucking with the fire (no fine layers of ash all over everything!), and all for less money. My house is all-electric right down to pumping my own water, so it's my only utility bill other than internet. Am looking for other ways to save money or build off-grid backups.
But as mentioned in the main post, I'm in the perfect location for using these things, and the electric grid is likely to be severely degraded over the next few years. More on that when I finish editing most of the swearing and Minecraft PvP fantasies out of the follow-up energy policy post.
Re. Off grid shit:
Even shitty solar panels are pretty good these days, and a blind idiot can install everything up to the controller by following a youtube tutorial.
The problem, as always, are the inverter, batteries, and grid connection.
Batteries are expensive and not of even quality, the inverter can easily flash fry you and is kinda touchy, and unless you are lucky enough to have a state run grid the privately owned public utility (disgusting word combo there) will extract from you many pounds of flesh for attempting to not pay them their blood money.
Honestly, unless you are really handy with electrical shit or can get a good deal on an installed powerwall style setup, I can't recommend trying to do full off grid; especially since you STILL need the grid connection as a backup. Specially at 0.113 p.kwh.
My local utility is public and run by leftists, which is why they spend more money on "equity" programs than maintaining the transmission lines, and think that utility solar is a good investment in the region with the lowest winter insolation in the country.
That's why I need to spend money to have grid-independent backups, because as bad as they are at keeping the power on, they're going to get even worse.
If your utility is public and leftist, call them and see if they have a grid storage/solar incentive program.
Get an actual human on the line and you might get some shit done; some of my acquaintances in Alaska got a bunch of off grid stuff at no/low charge 'cause their utility was a leftist granola co-op; where as all the private companies in CA will fuck you 8 ways from Saturday and twice on Sunday as a treat.
Yes, they do. The "grid storage" does no good because they can't keep the grid up, and the fund serves mostly as a handout to politically connected leftist "nonprofits" and party members.
You know, how it always works and how you seem to want it to work.
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Do you mind commenting on how cold it's getting outside? There was some concern in the previous post about heat pumps at low temperatures, but newer models claim to outperform baseboard for surprisingly low temperatures. It hasn't happened often, but my heat pump worked into the low 10s (F) during the cold snap a few weeks back.
The new Mitsubishis will still outperform baseboard down to at least -15F (realistically down to whatever their minimum temp is, usually -22-25ish), but since baseboard is so ridiculously expensive it's rarely a good metric unless electric is your only option. See the graph in that post for all the stuff that would also outperform baseboard lol.
It was between 25 and 40F for most of Nov, so basically ideal heat pump conditions as typical for this area. In late Dec it went down to the tweens for a few days, causing the grid to fail several times.(Yeah, the management is that pathetic. I feel pretty vindicated on the "have a backup rather than rely on cold weather performance" argument)
Other people's Mitsubishi FS units kept up fine at that temp (at least when the power was on) but I turned my cheapo unit off and used the wood stove all week instead. Mine would only get a COP of about 1.7 at those temps, vs 2.5ish for a mitsu. And the output on mine would drop to maybe 6kbtu, while the Mitsus were still putting out about 16k, still above their 12k rating.
Good to have feedback. I haven't worked directly in HVAC in several years but recall heat pump performance getting progressively worse as temperatures got farther below freezing.
It still doesn't feel hot when the heater kicks on, right?
Oh, they definitely get worse. Even the Mitsubishi has lost 1/3 of its capacity by 12ishF. But the good ones are way overbuilt for their ratings now, and the vapor injection where pre-expanded gas subcools liquid going into the evaporator does a nice job of boosting capacity at lower temps.
(If you can explain how those work, I'd be eternally grateful. Been trying to wrap my head around it for ages--I get how a regenerator heat exchanger works on a steam turbine, but this is way more confusing somehow)
What do you mean by doesn't feel hot? The outlet air from mine is pretty low by furnace standards: 125F on autofan, down to 95 if I turn the fan up to get more airflow over the condenser.
Subcools liquid going into the evaporator? Subcooling in HVAC and refrigeration usually refers to how much sensible heat(that is, over and above that required for condensation) was released in the system in the condenser coil. Unless of course they're(whoever "they" is) referring to the condenser for the heat pump as an evaporator because that's what it is when working as an air conditioner, in which case gas refrigerant used to cool the system from the heat of operation(mostly the compressor motor) is routed directly into the condenser to add heat when the reversing valve(part that switches between an air conditioner and a heat pump) is in use. That would be mildly unconventional terminology but not any worse than usual marketing lies from HVAC manufacturers.
Honestly a lot higher than I remember air coming out of a heatpump.
Nah, this is a weird new thing they do where some of the liquid coming out of the condenser is split off to a separate expansion valve, then through a heat exchanger where it subcools the main liquid line like a mechanical subcooler, then gets injected back into the middle of the compressor at medium temp and pressure without going through the evaporator.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=74o3bPemVUU
Good video on it. I understand how extra subcooling increases capacity and that the injected vapor cools(?) the compressor and reduces outlet temps by shifting to a lower isentrope curve(??), but the rest of it is beyond me. Apparently it works out thermodynamically similar to having a two-stage cycle with two separate compressors coupled with a heat exchanger, like they use for the big cold temp industrial stuff.
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