Air Conditioning

[Beekissed]

Here's an interesting site with this subject:

http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/cooling.html

 

[Denim Deb]

Check to be sure that nothing is shorting out someplace.

 

[Snowhunter]

Thanks for the link Bee.. the solar screens sounds doable (the house has NO screens, grrr) and some other good ideas there.

Deb, yeah I just reminded DH to bring home the stuff to test the unit, since its not raining and nice and sunny out today. He was thinking the wiring must be off somewhere or possibly backwards.

 

[hwillm1977]

That seems like there has to be something wrong with the unit... my parents just had a mini-split heat pump/AC unit installed and although they are using it to heat the house their cost to heat their house for the ENTIRE winter months was $440 last year (that's using heat from October to May, a 16x72 foot mobile home)... our outdoor temp is regularly -20 to -30 right now...

 

[liz stevens]

It really sounds like your backup electric heat strips are kicking on when ever the air or heat cycle comes on. Have your tech take a look that they are wired correctly. Just one of them kicking in would explain the increase in cost, plus the heat pump will be working overtime to compenstate the heat when it is trying to cool.

Heat pumps just don't work very well when the temps drop to a certain level. The furnace will be equiped with electric heat strips that will kick on and assist the heat pump to bring the heat up in the house. It's not too uncommon for these to be miswired in the installation or a retrofit situation. It may also be in a malfunctioning wall theromostat as most will allow you to manually switch over to the heat strips, so if that is somehow calling for additional heat, your heat strips would be kicking on.

A heat pump also works great with geo thermo to preheat or cool through a coil in the blower compartment. It will keep the temp down to the below ground tempatures and then the heat pump only has to bring the temp up for heat or down for cooling. Pretty expensive investment for geo though it needs many years to see return on investment. If you were lucky to have a large lake in the back yard you could pull off geo thermo much cheaper by sinking a coil in the bottom and using the lake water to pull the geo thermo into the blower area. For heating the same can be tied into a solar system, but can get pretty costly as well.

I suspect the heat strip will be the real issue here.

 

[Snowhunter]

I thought it was the unit, but the cost was the same with the 25yo (give or take) unit as the brand new one

Interesting about the heat strips.. I'll tell DH about that and have him double check everything again.

On that note.. he did try and check the other day, but his leads don't work so he wasn't able to figure anything out. Reckon the installation folks will need to be called in, which we'll do as soon as we clean the basement out so they can actually get in and check ducting and such as well. DH should be able to check the thermostat though. It was installed w/the new unit.

I appreciate the information. I'm so glad we don't NEED the AC right now!!!

 

[Steve Holmes]

Hi guys,

Thank you for sharing such relevant Air Conditioning topic with us. I really love all the great stuff you provide. Thanks again and keep it coming.

Nice to meet you

Steve Holmes