I have had a 5,000 btu heater hanging from the ceiling in my shop for several years. Up until the past two years when temps have dropped for unusually long periods (it’s April 4th and the outside temp was 25 F this morning), it has performed fairly well particularly when I stand close by.
On the other end of the comfort zone, I have had a Haier portable air conditioner in the shop with the attendant window insert and hoses for those 100+ degree summer days. Of late, it’s primary purpose has been to get in my way and take up space.
I decided to look at Mini Split A/C heat pumps after getting a Costco mailer promoting MRCOOL. The 12k model was rated at between 450 and 600 sf depending on which brochure you read. I decided that I wasn’t looking for 70 degree comfort in winter or summer so I ordered one from Costco. That decision marked the beginning of several hiccups and burps.
Costco orders get to us very quickly. As the crow flies over the summit of the Sierra Nevada mountains, we are only about 60-70 miles from seriously major shipping centers near Reno. The UPS projection was that the heat pump would arrive in two days. In reality, it never got here.
We normally see between 6-8” of snow each year; hangs around a day or two then it is gone. Last year, we got nearly two feet over 2-3 days. It was heavy and wet. Trees fell all around our property and the entire power line structure that passes over two ridges before it distributed energy our way was taken out by fallen 100+ foot pines and fir trees. We ran on generator backup for 15 days at a cost of $150 to replace a set of brushes and nearly $3,000 for propane.
This year, the snow was somewhat drier, but it was also intense. A total of about three feet over several days meant that UPS’s delivery projections went into the toilet. After 10 days of no reports, my MRCOOL unit was declared lost and Costco shipped out a new unit. That unit was scheduled to arrive in two days.
Problem was that the new unit ran into what turned out to be 16 trailers at the UPS terminal about 15 miles from our house that had been stacked up awaiting unloading for nearly two weeks.
In the meantime, my tractor was on injured reserve and unavailable to clear either our 300’ driveway or the 1/4 mile road that leads to our house that is not cleared by the county. In an enormous stroke of luck, I managed to find the only snow blower left for sale within several hundred miles. We managed to clear the road and all the neighbor’s driveways and then we waited for UPS, US Mail, Fedex deliveries; completed grocery runs, medical appointments and the like. But, still no UPS and I had already taken down the ceiling heater and given it to my neighbor who was now warm and toasty in his previously cold garage shop.
Suddenly, I received a notice (actually, two notices) that both heat pumps were preparing for delivery. What was previously lost was now found and the second unit had somehow passed the original unit somewhere on the back stretch and it was about a dead heat as to which order would arrive first.
Problem was one order had been refunded, it was possible that both would arrive at the same time (maybe with me not being home to refuse one) and, being near 100 lbs apiece, I didn’t want to have to schlep around any more weight than was necessary. Luckily, our regular UPS driver who had let me in on the 16 backed up trailers recognized that there were two units addressed to me and called to ask if he should turn the early shipment back. I appreciated that.
The install went OK. I ran about 1/2 of the necessary line from the panel, up through the attic, down through a soffit on the opposite side from the panel wall and then tweaked my back while doing pushups across the tie beams in the roof trusses in an effort to pull the line while not falling through the ceiling and onto one of the cast iron machines below. It was time to call a much younger electrician to finish the electrical.
After finding the only 3.5” hole saw within 25 miles (Harbor Freight), the rest of the install was very simple. The DIY part of this unit is pretty much the charged line-sets. Seems odd to have unused length coiled up behind the condenser, but that is the price you pay for not having to charge the system.
It heats and cools quite well. There is a USB drive that plugs in to provide Bluetooth connection to a phone app, but once set up, it kept hanging up and only transmitted about half of the commands available in the app. I had to reboot the air handler several times to got the app to work intermittently and then I pulled the USB drive and transferred control to a Mysa thermostat that offers better control and connectivity. The Mysa app also controls a 220V wall heater in our master bathroom.
The shop has never been so comfortable.
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Originally Posted by Jeff Bartley
