Thank you. I'll keep looking.I belive that the garage door fell under the "exterior door" qualification.
Thank you. I'll keep looking.I belive that the garage door fell under the "exterior door" qualification.
I'll have to check w/ my tax guy - thanks!I belive that you can still claim that credit from 2021 retroactively through 2025. The amount then was 10‰ but that is still something... Right?
I have a 600sq shop with a large open ceiling. I'm running this one from Amazon. I went with a smaller unit after some forum research that recommended smaller to help keep the shop drier. It runs longer for a cycle, which allows more air to get circulated through it. I haven't had any issues with keeping my shop at a comfortable temp year round.Hi,
Is anyone running a mini split in their shop?
I have a 400 sq. ft. garage shop attached to the house. First I was looking at portable air conditioner units. One of those would cost almost $600. That seems really steep for what it is. It looks like an 18,000 btu mini split that will cool and heat will run about $1,000. It seems like a no brainer for the cost difference.
Then I started to look at DIY installation. I am comfortable pouring the pad, running the dedicated circuit, hanging the unit and pulling the lines. What I am not comfortable with, nor do I have the equipment for, is the pressure test and final connections.
I looked online and "average" installation runs about 3K. I assume that to be for everything from start to finish.
For those of you who have one are you happy with the performance? Did you do the installation yourself and have any suggestions?
Thanks
I got my 18k from Ingram on line. Line set was 16 or 25 ft and they had plenty of scratch and dent models available when last I looked. It dropped my price 500.00. It was a 3rd Gen. Hardest part of the install was connecting the lines to the unit. I had a wall bracket and my angle was real tight but I got it in. I was a bit intimidated man handling that thin copper there. I did nit mount my unit on the ground as I did not want dirt and grass etc getting all over it.Another Mr. Cool DIY 18k owner. I installed our in a 600 sqft 2-car detached garage with 9' ceilings. It replaced a "portable" AC unit that was loud and didn't work well for cooling and two (in-efficient) radiant cove wall-attached heaters which were quiet, but also very slow to heat. The mini split indoor noise level is *very* low -- just the fan, which is quiet. Outdoor noise level is quiet as well.
I think the new (3rd generation) Mr. Cool DIY units come with a short (2-3 ft) piece of line on the air handler and the rest of the lineset separate for easier installation. I'm not sure if anyone sells it with a shorter lineset though -- 25' is what HD/etc. sell it with.
One flaw in his design is that the front panel on the unit can't be raised fully as it hits the filter. It might be a better solution to have the filter box such that it easily attaches/removes from the wall. I think that it could be made much lighter than this one is.Looks like a good idea for a wooshop to me. About the only disadvantage of mini splits is not having a disposable filter. That should not be a problem in theory as long as there is enough filter area. I'll leave that for someone else to figure out but the mini splits I've seen don't blow a real high cfm.
I thought it would strain the unit so I just fitted a cheaper and thinner filter above the intake. Basically just hung it above it and cut the cardboard so it would drop over the front of the unit some. It does not catch it all but I post a filter clean out date chart on my door and clean it out every so often. You will not keep all the dust out and I sure don't want to buy a new compressor or unit because I did not want to clean up dust in a wood shop.This is an interesting idea.
This guy created a secondary filter box for the mini split in his woodworking shop.
I wonder if this strains the unit?
Which brand did you get and could you also send me the contact info for the installer? Thank youI installed mine and had a guy come out and do the final hook up (evacuation) for $150. I’ll send you a PM with his contact info as soon as I find his card. (I think he is near Whitsett.
I have a 24k unit for a 3 stall garage and it works very well. I really beats messing with propane heaters and fans that never really worked well.
Mr. Cool has a version with pre-charged lines, which would allow you to do everything without the need for a vacuum and gauges. However you are stuck with whatever line length they offer. You can coil the excess length, but I didn’t like that idea. In my case the Senville unit from Amazon plus’s the $150 for the hvac guy was still much less than the Mr. Cool at the time.
Also when looking at breaker and wire size, hvac units have ”Minimum Circuit Ampacity“ and “max. Fuse”. You can size to MCA. In my case it was a significant cost savings to be able to use 12 ga instead of 10 (for 75 ft).
What type of unit(brand) do you prefer as a pro? Do you do the final hook up type job? I'm an electrician and could do all the pre-installation work.The vacuum decay test does serve as a double check for leaks but it is very necessary to remove air and moisture before adding the refrigerant. I pull it down to 200 microns of vacuum.