Installing Split AC Unit in Cold Places

You can buy special heat pumps that will serve as cooler in summer and as heaters in the winter. I think Carrier makes them(among others)

http://www.residential.carrier.com/products/acheatpumps/heatpumps/index.shtml

Heatpumps are only truely effective at temps above 38 degrees F. Anything below that, the emergency heat (electric coils) will energize. Your most effecient bet is is a gas pack, whereas your heat is generated by a gas fired heat exchanger and your cooling is generated by a compressor with refridgerant, evaporator, condensor. Most all HVAC manufacturers make gas packs. You can also have the gas regulator built for natural gas or LPG, whichever is available in your area. The unit also comes as a split unit (heat exchanger, evaporator and evaporator fan in the house and condensor unit, fan and compressor unit outdoors) or it comes as a package unit (all components together, outdoors).

Typically, you can use 500 sq. ft. of living space per ton, so a 1500 sq. ft. house will require a 3 ton unit. The amount of windows in a house as some effect on this calculation, so be sure to keep this in mind.

thanks

Can you please clarify the question; do you want this machine to provide cooling or heating during cold weather?

If you want it to provide cooling in warm weather and heating in cold weather, you should purchase a reverse-cycle heat pump.

If you want to provide cooling in both weathers, you need a 'Weatherized' air conditioner. These have additional components that allow them to provide cooling in cold weather, including (But not limited to): Condenser fan control, solenoid valve for off-cycle refrigerant control, modulating metering device such as TXV, suction line accumulator, compressor crankcase heater, compressor hard start device, loss of charge switch, and time-delay bypass (Or removal) of low pressure safety switch.

Some commercial air conditioners have these already built in. Good Luck!

The air to air heat pump is the way to go. I have a 2000 sq ft house that is conditioned with a 3 1/2 ton system. We keep the thermostat set at 75 deg year round (we're in our 80's), switching from heating to cooling as required by outside temperature. Here in central Texas, our summer design is 98 deg dry bulb and 78 deg wet bulb, winter design is 20 deg, with approximately 1350 deg days winter. This system will have been in operation for 20 years this coming Sept. I replaced the original condensing unit 8 years ago, and the air handling unit last year. It is a Carrier system. Right now, we are in a severe winter condition, outside temp is in the 20's, it has been sleeting off and on for two days, and we are "toastey" warm.

Very interesting. Now, can anybody tell me what he said?

he recycles tires and that is a spam to the forum

Three years ago, I built a sound insulated room in my garage (4m x 5m) where I could play electric guitar as loud as I wished, whenever I wished, without disturbing my family or neighbors. It is very effective. I live in Houston, Texas where the hot days (above 75f) are much more frequent than the cold days (below 60f). I didn't want to extend my central air/heat from the main house to my "jam room," or add a window unit, because the required hole for the vent/unit would have leaked sound. So, I shopped around and bought a Klimaire-brand 3/4 ton split system (a/c and heat pump).

I got it and the installation kit on Ebay for about $680 and installed it myself in about 3 hours. The evaporater, fan, filter, and control unit is about the size of a big city Sunday newspaper and mounts on the inside wall. The installation required only a 7cm diameter hole for the electrical supply, the two insulated copper refrigerant tubes, and a condensation drain tube. The outside unit is about the size of a large suitcase and is fairly quiet. The outside unit came precharged with refrigerant.

It has worked perfectly and has needed no maintenance. I am able to keep my jam room temp within a narrow temp range year round. I have had only two issues with it. One, the remote is a bit unintuitive and spells "clock" as "colck." Two, because my jam room is better insulated than a refrigerator and undersized for even 3/4 ton, the cooling cycles are too short to dehumidify. Thus, I had to buy a separate dehumidifier.

That problem would go away, if I ever added some additional on space for it to cool. In fact, when I leave the jam room door open with the outer garage doors closed, it easliy cools the garage area outside the jam room (where I left a 2m x 7m shop area. Additional wall units can be added on to cool/heat additional rooms. This feature would make these types of units ideal for retrofitting buildings that were not built with adequate duct space.

I could not be more pleased with the unit.

It's prety simple men. you can use both of a/c system or a heat pump system. as you should know, the point where the liquid turn into gaz in most of those machine is around -18 celcius so the machine wont work properly below that point. There is some machine built whit a internal cut-out witch turn off your machine at a certain temperature. If you have a machine not designed for (canadian) winter, you can buy a external cut-out witch you have to plug your self. Be carefull to respect every electricity law from your erea.

for more information you can contact me

vince