Anyone have a floor console mini split head?
bfw577
| Posted in General Questions on
Looking to add another 12k unit to my house mainly for heating and the floor console units look interesting. Fujitsu has a unit that can direct the fan at the floor or high up or both. It would seem the unit mounted at the floor level where the air is coldest would help massively with its efficiency. I would assume blowing the warm air out the bottom along the colder floor would help as well? I would really only use it for heating as the unit at floor level is probably not an ideal location for cooling compared to a high wall mount.
Anyone have any feedback on one?
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Ive heard they work great, if u dont mind them in the way
>"Ive heard they work great, if u dont mind them in the way"
It's harder to bang your head on them than a high-wall coil! :-)
They are no more in the way than old-school cast iron radiators, and like radiators they can be recessed into the wall.
>"I would really only use it for heating as the unit at floor level is probably not an ideal location for cooling compared to a high wall mount. "
From an efficiency point of view, yes, it'll be slightly less efficient during the cooling season than a high wall unit.
But from a comfort & stratification point of view there's good mixing when the vanes are directed upward. The air is coming out at about the same height as most hotel/motel PTHP/PTAC units, but the intake is near the floor which is generally cooler to begin with, which takes the efficiency down a tiny bit. Unless it's in a cooling dominated climate it's not worth sweating that one.
It's easier to find a reasonable place for floor units in knee-walled built out attics with slope ceilings or any space with lower ceilings than high-wall coils. The down side is primarily the higher cost.
> where the air is coldest would help massively with its efficiency
Not massively, but it does help.
Don't make the output blow on people.
Also consider ducted - even for a single room. They can be hidden in unusual ways.
Decided to go with a Midea DLCSRAH12AAK floor console and am installing it this weekend. It came in a Carrier North America box with all the Midea stickers taped on the box that you put on yourself. I know Carrier and Midea are the same but it looks like they are most certainly off the same assembly line. The Midea is significantly cheaper as well.
I attached pictures of the unit dissembled. It appears one huge advantage of these floor consoles is they are simple to take apart and clean. Its just one big blower wheel and the evaporator. Even with the lineset connected its easy to move out of the way. Wall units can be difficult to take apart and clean. The long blower wheels on them are known to get really nasty.
Will update how the install goes.
>"I know Carrier and Midea are the same but it looks like they are most certainly off the same assembly line. The Midea is significantly cheaper as well."
The difference will probably be in the amount of product support in the US, should it ever need repair/replacement.
Yea, evidently everyone agrees that Medea makes Carrier, Bryant, and their own branded mini-splits. I've got a Bryant multi-split.
Agree with Dana on support. The only responsive HVAC crew around us that had experience with mini-splits was a Bryant dealer. (We are way out in the sticks :) This came in handy when we had some errors after install. Our HVAC contractor had a Bryant guy come out, take a look, and make a few tweaks to the system setup.
I seriously considered a floor console unit for our living room and hallway, but opted for all wall units. We weren't sure that we weren't ever going to block a floor unit, and the possibility of blocking head units was almost none -- we have very little furniture that goes all the way up to the ceiling :).
Good to know about cleaning the long blower wheels ... first I"ve heard of that.
I've been trying to find a mini split that is easy to keep clean, as I have an extreme sensitivity to mold. The long blower wheels are indeed very difficult to clean, so I've been hesitant to use a standard wall mount mini split. Thanks for sharing about this floor console model.
BFW,
I have two 15k units from Fujitsu and each has its own outdoor unit. I'm in zone 6, Colorado at 9,400', so pretty cold in winter and almost zero need for air conditioning. My wife refused to have wall units up high and I wasn't keen on that either. I found two places where they would fit. The first head is part of akitchen island where the floor unit essentially blocks nothing and has a solid look at a big open area of kitchen, dining and living room, entry and hallway. That area is approx 26' x 28' with 180 sq. ft. of windows and doors. I think it does a great job there and it's quiet.
The second unit is in the walk out basement (two levels only) and sits on one of the longer basement walls where not a lot is going on. This unit could be in someone's way someday, but for now there's a lot of options and it doesn't get in the way. The basement unit is oversized for that space but, via an open staircase, it ends up helping heat the main floor when it's particularly cold.
I don't know if the floor units are more efficient at heating because they are on the floor. The house is well insulated with R20/20/5.5/40/75 for sub-slab, foundation, windows, walls and ceiling and I got 1 ACH with the blower door test, so I don't think I get a lot of temperature stratification, and so maximal mixing of warm air and room air may not be critical for me.
Lastly, the lower louver only seems to be used when the unit needs to put out near maximum heat, so the picture you show with air coming out at the floor level is not what I get most of the time. For me, I only get this when the temp drops below about 10F.
Hope this helps,
Bill
Finally had some cold weather last night to give the unit a good run. I have an electrical monitor and a supply and return temp probe on the unit. At min capacity it draws 180-200 watts and at full capacity draws about 1.8-2 kwh. So looks like a 10 to 1 turndown. I was getting impressive supply air temps of around 130-140 at max capacity. The return/supply delta t was around 70.
I have a 12k wall mount downstairs and this unit is far superior in heating. Using my Flir you can see these units send a ton of heat out along the floor. In this flir picture I have it set to both top and bottom vents open. Really impressed with the heat distribution.
We have a Mitsu hyper heat floor console in one room and wall units pretty much everywhere else. . It's been able to keep a very poorly insulated (as in none, the walls are currently plywood from remodel) room at temp and is quiet.
Here is some modulation data from full output to min output. It looks like it has a 10 to 1 turndown. At max capacity it draws around 2kwh and can modulate down to a min 200 watts. Those spikes at min are present on my other mini split as well. Anyone know why? Perhaps the refrigerant pressure builds up?
I also included a close up of a defrost cycle around 6:40. The specs list its heating capacity at 4800-13600. So according to my data at 200 watts its putting out 4800 btus. Seems like an impressive COP at min output? Anyone know how I could calculate it? Looks like its close to 9?
The spikes are oil recovery. All mini splits have them when running at min modulation.
The best way to check COP is to measure inlet/outlet temp and flow. Flow is a hard one with wall mount, but you can use the values from the spec sheet to get a ballpark. The COP of most (not all) mini splits increases at low modulation. You can also check out the NEEP database for your unit.
What monitoring system do you use? Very cool, thanks.