Working well
Hi, I just wanted to check in with my HyperHeat Mini-spilts.
Up until yesterday they were the sole source of heat in the house. (I have 5 units installed, one 15Kbtu in the open area downstairs and one 9Kbtu each in the 4 bedrooms. The house is a 2200 SF two-story, remodeled in the 90's. We have oil fired hot water and a propane fireplace insert too.
When we bought the house last year I added 6" of attic insulation, getting now to R38-ish levels. I was unsure of the wall insulation. However, with all the ongoing remodeling, I noticed that the exterior walls had a 1" or so thick foil-faced insulation in the 2 x 4 walls! SO I have been tearing down the walls and insulating with Roxul mineral wool batts (R15 for 3"--great stuff!). So wall heat loss is a problem.
The Mitsubishi units have kept us nice and comfy so far. Yesterday as the temps plummeted past 0, they couldn't keep up despite continually pumping out the hot air. Which has a lot more to do with the heat loss than the HyperHeat units. So I set the oil boiler to come on to help.
Although we are only at the Lake 3-4 days per week, our entire electric bill was $180 for December, which is about $100 more than last year. The units excel at efficiently keeping a minimum heat level (50-55 deg.) while we are away.
All in all I am still quite happy, as our original need for the units was as an alternative for central air. To have such flexibility with various fuel prices as they fluctuate is the best of all worlds.
--Steve
|