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SageBrush said:
My Carrier AC unit died two weeks after the warranty period and the manufacturer refused any assistance. I won't buy from them again.

10 year parts warranty? Which model did you have?

Research and others steered me away from the highest efficiency Trane heat pump, but the next model down seemed to have a pretty reliable record. I have not come across the Carrier Infinity 20 Greenspeed having any particular issues that made it stand out. Maybe some other Carrier models don't have a good track record. Ours will come with a 2-year labor and 10-year parts warranty.

Our current unit is a 10 SEER Carrier and is 16+ years old and still working. Just had to replace a capacitor on the condenser unit about 4-5 year ago but otherwise no issues.
 
Checking in with an update.

About 12 months ago we indeed replaced our old AC and gas furnace with a Carrier Infinity 20 Greenspeed (SEER 20.5, HSPF 13) air sourced heat pump. We used 1258 kWh for the ‘18 cooling season and 1824 kWh for the ’18-’19 heating season. Only 6 kWh of this was resistive heat to continue to warm the house on the required coil de-ice cycles on the few coldest predawn mornings.

A few months ago we also ditched our one speed pool pump for a variable speed one and can confirm it cut energy use 85-90%.

Most recently, a couple weeks ago, we finally moved past the last personal home/transportation fossil fuel item and replaced our gas cooktop with an induction one. We still have a gas meter, but the valve is now turned off at the meter.

We were a bit skeptical on how it would perform compared to well established gas cooktops, but the new induction cooktop has not disappointed. It boils water much faster than gas, is very efficient as heats only the cookware (actually once the cookware gets hot the cookware can heat the cooktop directly underneath), and because there is immediate direct energy transfer to the cookware it allows more precise cooking control. We can melt butter or chocolate without burning it.

For the non-ecotech enthusiast (the wife), the greatest thing might be how easy it is to clean up given a smooth ceramic top and no burn-on since the top doesn't directly get hot or hot enough with cookware heat back feed.
 
I live in a Northeast second floor bedroom, and like many others it's very hard to cool in Summer, and hard to heat when we get a Northeast wind in Winter. I've ordered a "Mr. Cool" 18000btu DIY one room mini split unit. It will be here on Friday. I've been spending weeks trying to solve nearly insurmountable problems like boring a 3.54" hole through ancient lather and plaster. (I hopefully solved that one by changing the plan to boring through one of my 5" window frames - from the outside in to remove any plaster dust before I get into my living area. I'm doing the wiring for it on Wednesday, and hopefully the mounting bracket on Thursday or Friday. Then next weekend, assuming it arrives undamaged, I get to install it, with one or two unskilled helpers...
 
Nice price and specs over at Home Depot (17.7 SEER, 9.8 HSPF). If you have a way to measure your achieved efficiency gains after a cooling or heating season, would be nice to hear.
 
SageBrush said:
iPlug said:
Checking in with an update.

About 12 months ago we indeed replaced our old AC and gas furnace with a Carrier Infinity 20 Greenspeed (SEER 20.5, HSPF 13) air sourced heat pump. We used 1258 kWh for the ‘18 cooling season and 1824 kWh for the ’18-’19 heating season.
Thanks for sharing.

I looked up Rocklin's temperature profile. Your cooling season consumption sounds pretty reasonable. What internal temperature do you choose ?

I live in a dry, high desert climate and at my wife's insistence am going to install cooling (heating is with NG.) I decided on a swamp cooler rather than a heat pump partly for efficiency and partly because I do not like recirculated air. I know from prior monitoring that the lion's share of energy use is actually not the cooling, it is the ~ kW to push the air through the ducting. I anticipate using 5 - 7 kWh a day during our 2-3 month active cooling season by cooling the home for about an hour in the early AM and then another 4 hours or so in the early evening. I'm shooting for temperatures that start at 60F in the AM and peak at ~ 75F.

My uncertainty is whether to size the cooler for my entire house's volume or just the bottom floor since the airflow will be bottom to top.
 
SageBrush said:
What internal temperature do you choose ?

Our average weighted thermostat winter set point is 70°F and weighted summer set point is 77°F. Our house is a single-story, approximately 2550 ft.².

In the winter at night we might let it drop down to 68°F, and during the daytime when we’re home increase it to 72-73°F. In the summer even on the hottest days, it is always cool enough outside to turn on the whole house fan and chill the house around sunrise. On most summer nights we can also open the windows in the evening and turn on the house fan to further cool the house.

During the spring and fall it is quite easy to achieve comfortable temperatures in a house with just using the house fan occasionally at the edges of the day if passive measures aren’t enough.

As for passive heating and cooling, we open/close windows and open/close blinds and shades strategically. We (my better half) could probably do a better job with this part. :D

SageBrush said:
I anticipate using 5 - 7 kWh a day during our 2-3 month active cooling season by cooling the home for about an hour in the early AM and then another 4 hours or so in the early evening. I'm shooting for temperatures that start at 60F in the AM and peak at ~ 75F.

My uncertainty is whether to size the cooler for my entire house's volume or just the bottom floor since the airflow will be bottom to top.
Very nice plan and great low kWh use expected. Let us know what you ultimately decide with sizing and how the realized numbers work out.
 
Has anyone here had to cut through a lathe & plaster wall? I'm still planning on using the window frame, but have concerns about the window losing structural integrity with a 3.6" hole though a 5" frame. (The wall is in a faux turret and isn't load-bearing.) I'm hoping that the always-attached wooden storm window will help with that, as it's "glued on" with paint and caulk...
 
iPlug said:
In the winter at night we might let it drop down to 68°F
Heh.

My wife has come around to my opinion that it does not matter how cold it is at night under covers. In the morning she wants the air at least 55F until the sun comes out. She still disagrees with me that exercise is best first thing on a chilly morning. For the most part we only turn on the home heating on cloudy days. Our winter climate is ~ 15F nadir and - 50F peak with a lot of sunny days. It is perfect.
 
I cut through lath and plaster, stucco, brick, concrete, my own blend of military grade ballistic concrete.

For lath and plaster I use a regular 120v powered drill and hole saw with brazed carbide teeth.
A standard hole saw can be used but it's going to be dull after a few holes.
So if you only have to cut one hole just ruin a regular cheap hole saw.
 
Oilpan4 said:
I cut through lath and plaster, stucco, brick, concrete, my own blend of military grade ballistic concrete.

For lath and plaster I use a regular 120v powered drill and hole saw with brazed carbide teeth.
A standard hole saw can be used but it's going to be dull after a few holes.
So if you only have to cut one hole just ruin a regular cheap hole saw.

Everything I have read so far suggests that that will produce a huge amount of dust and that the lathe will vibrate and shake plaster loose. How do you avoid those issues?
 
SageBrush said:
My wife has come around to my opinion that it does not matter how cold it is at night under covers. In the morning she wants the air at least 55F until the sun comes out.

Sounds like you've made more progress in this arena on your end. Agree, ideally should be able to practically turn the heat off at night.

I've long been trying to nudge my wife along on with my eco/efficiency antics. I get less push back these days and have a better idea of how much I can pull, and seem to be slowly winning the long game on selling her on it.

SageBrush said:
For the most part we only turn on the home heating on cloudy days. Our winter climate is ~ 15F nadir and - 50F peak with a lot of sunny days. It is perfect.
Nice that you have all those windows to work the greenhouse effect to your advantage. If we were to build a future home, that would be a real consideration for us. A bit tougher here though as winter is our rainy season so not so many sunny days at that time of year.
 
I wear a dust mask maybe put down a canvas tarp. For the drill it needs to be a heavy duty high speed drill with side handle. I would use one of my dewalt drills that does 2,000 to 2,500 rpm at no load, go in full speed cut nice and slowly.
Clean up after with a shop vac setup for dust collection.
If you have idel hands you can have some one hold the shop vac and suck up the dust as its being made.
But be ware I have had 60lb chunks of plaster come down as soon as I have touched a lath and plaster ceiling. Don't trust it if it has water damage.
 
Bringing an update in from an unrelated thread where the update really should continue here.

In November 2017 we retired our 15 year old 50-gallon natural gas water heater and replaced it with a Rheem 65-gallon heat pump water heater. It has performed well since. We have a family of 4 and rarely multi-day guests bring house occupancy up to ~10 max.

We leave the water heater on heat pump only mode ~100% of the time for maximal efficiency when it's just the 4 of us here. Normally with just a couple extra guests we simply turn up the heat pump temperature a few degrees and leave it in heat pump only mode.

However, maybe 1-2x a year for a couple hours total we use supplemental electric resistance heating when multiple guests are visiting for a few days and lots of showers, laundry, dishwasher use, etc. are to be had.

One thing previously brought up on this board was if the unit had TOU controls. Originally it did not have this functionality. For ~$49 we added a WiFi module (EcoNet) shortly after the time of purchase/install that lets one adjust some of the settings that can also be done right on the water heater like on/off, temperature, mode (heat pump only, hybrid, electric resistance only, etc), vacation mode, etc...

Finally yesterday EcoNet 2.0 software was available and installed on my iPhone with TOU controls. Thus far with 1 day of scheduling, testing has worked appropriately. I have the water heater set now only to act as a thermal battery and run the heat pump only during lowest TOU timeframes.
 
Yeah I looked at those and figured the pay back time would be some time after it breaks or starts leaking.
My solution was to buy a used etech add on heat pump hot water heater for $300.
It was a process to get it ready, drained then dragged the hot water heater outside to flush out all the mineral build up. After I got it cleaned out the inside looked brand new.
Installed a magnesium anode.
Installed a 40 amp 10-50 range cord on the hot water heater. Terminated the original hot water heater wire at a 10-50 receptacle.
Rewired the hot water heater to run both heating elements at the same time if needed. Max draw is 25 amps on my fluke meter.
The way the manual says to wire in the heat pump is dumb so I wired it in on its own standalone thermostat and circuit. The heat pump is on its own little 10 amp circuit with 14/2 wire.
The heater elements can operate completely independent of the heatpump or together.
But the only time I run heat pump and the hot water heater elements at the same time is when I fill the hot tub.
Next step will be to figure out a way to heat water with the coal furnace in the winter.
 
iPlug said:
Finally yesterday EcoNet 2.0 software was available and installed on my iPhone with TOU controls. Thus far with 1 day of scheduling, testing has worked appropriately. I have the water heater set now only to act as a thermal battery and run the heat pump only during lowest TOU timeframes.
I'm surprised you do not take the heat pump efficiency into account as well.
Second, I thought you have PV ?
 
SageBrush said:
iPlug said:
Finally yesterday EcoNet 2.0 software was available and installed on my iPhone with TOU controls. Thus far with 1 day of scheduling, testing has worked appropriately. I have the water heater set now only to act as a thermal battery and run the heat pump only during lowest TOU timeframes.
I'm surprised you do not take the heat pump efficiency into account as well.
Second, I thought you have PV ?
Not sure I understand.

Do you mean why not run the heat pump more when the ambient air temperatures are highest? It is true that peak TOU is associated with higher ambient air temperatures.

Our TOU plan is off peak, partial peak, and peak. We remain off peak if avoid the following hours:
Summer 6 months: M-F 10am-9pm; Sat/Sun: 5-8pm
Winter 6 months: M-F 5-8pm, all other hours off peak

Not desert climate here, so it's still fairly warm in the late evening with plenty of ambient heat to extract from 9pm-midnight in the summer when the heat pump only needs to run a few hours a day. Also, we have large black garage doors that face SE so get a greenhouse effect in the morning as soon as sunlight hits. For example, just checked the ambient temperature by the air intake of the water heater this morning at 7:30am and it's low 80s ºF. During the winter 6 months, we only would have to avoid M-F 5-8pm TOU so little problem there.

I'll keep an eye on the daily energy use to see if efficiency seems to be significantly suffering by avoiding the highest ambient air temperatures that happen during peak TOU.

We do have solar PV and run a net surplus (to offset some of our carbon footprint beyond household energy use and personal transportation). In California, we are ok from an energy and environmental accounting standpoint of contributing more solar PV energy to the grid when it is in most demand and pulling in some high renewable/low carbon grid sourced electricity during off peak.
 
^ ^
It does get complicated, but if you send your excess PV generation to the grid you run the risk of the utility curtailing clean energy elsewhere and then using dirty energy yourself.

Using your own generation has these advantages:
1. You *know* it was not wasted
2. It reduces your net metering which has these positive effects:
- less political garbage of being subsidized by others
- less utility pressure to cancel net metering completely or add fees to home generators
- perhaps a more level load profile for the utility
3. Less uncertainty how dirty the returned energy via net metering is.

You might be able to improve on self-generation if you know the details of your local grid and its suppliers. If in doubt, self consume.
 
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