Home Office Projects Series: Air conditioner setup • Hacker News Board

Re: Home Office Projects Series: Air conditioner setup

#171

Post by lxe » Sat, Sep 05, 2020, 6:44 AM UTC

OnACoffeeBreak wrote: post #76

lxe wrote: post #62

I just did a DIY install of a mini split AC, including running electrical and the refrigerant lines, having never done so before. There was a whole "hidden side of the iceberg" to learn besides just the controller parts of how it works. The unit cost was ~600 while the install would have been ~1500, so I was betting that if I mess up catastrophically I could replace the whole thing once or even twice.

Did you have to get your work inspected? Where I live in the United States, the electrical lines would have to be inspected for compliance with building code, and I am not sure about the HVAC lines.

Electrical needs a permit, but AC is not a necessity apparently.

Re: Home Office Projects Series: Air conditioner setup

#172

Post by m463 » Sat, Sep 05, 2020, 12:54 PM UTC

amluto wrote: post #170

m463 wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> > condo in Minneapolis > This needs some real data. Minnesota Heating Degree Days[1]: ~ 500 Minnesota Cooling Degree Days[2]: ~ 8,000-10,000 I suspect heat pumps might reach practical limits with cold temperatures. [1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/United_S... [2] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/United_S...

I wonder if anyone has tried to commercialize a device that burns gas for combined heat and power and uses that power to directly drive a heat pump. Alternatively, ground source heat pumps work decently well even in very cold places, but the installation costs can be high.

> commercialize a device

I think a lot of (utility scale) generators do all kinds of fancy things like waste heat recovery.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/96/IG...

It would be kind of cool to see the same thing trickle down to your home.

Tesla kind of does this in reverse with the model y - it spends electricity parsimoniously, and uses a fancy heat pump to capture or dump heat.

Re: Home Office Projects Series: Air conditioner setup

#173

Post by eunos » Sun, Sep 06, 2020, 1:55 PM UTC

bobthepanda wrote: post #106

thaumasiotes wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It was explained to me once that there are Asian (specifically, Chinese) attitudes towards thrift that make it inconceivable/impossible to pay for AC that someone else might be using (or misusing). I don't know how true that is. I don't know how true it is either, but I can provide some mild support. Several years ago a vicious heat wave hit Shanghai, and the subway stations filled with people taking advantage of t…

I've heard of people doing this in malls, but subway stations is a bit weird for sure. Movie theaters in the US were very popular prior to prevalent home AC for much the same reason.

> but subway stations is a bit weird for sure

Huge subway station e.g. A station with a lot of interchange might be huge enough with stores and food courts close to a mall.