Haier Heat Pump, Arctic Next Gen Series
6SN7
| Posted in Energy Efficiency and Durability on
Looking for advice on Haier Heat Pump, Arctic Next Gen Series, being recommended by a local contractor. We are looking at 18,000 BTU unit to cool a 40×13 foot great room, and as backup/supplemental heat to our hot water baseboard. Not familiar with this brand, vs. the big players (Mitsubishi, Fujitsu…). Thinking about value, reliability, cost to own – some bad reviews out there – but wondering if 2020 current models have improved – or are all the late model units comparable? local contractor claiming local parts warehouse.
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6SN7,
I would be more concerned about the contractor doing the installation. Is the firm recommending the Haier, or are you driving that decision? It's often better to pick the brand that the contractor favors and routinely installs.
Thank you for your help. Yes, this particular (local) heating contractor is recommending this brand, a brand I am not that familiar with. Everything in my research so far, granted mostly Google searches, show Mitsubishi, Fujitsu, LG and a few others as the big players that have been doing this for years.
Ask the contractor what the SHR is at 1/3 load. But don't expect a straight answer :-).
I will, thanks. Looked it up myself
https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/shr-sensible-heat-ratio-d_700.html.
>"We are looking at 18,000 BTU unit to cool a 40×13 foot great room, and as backup/supplemental heat to our hot water baseboard. "
Unless it's an unshaded west facing great room with a gazillion square feet of glass 18,000 BTU/hr is likely to be sub-optimally oversized for an 520 square foot room. I'd be surprised if the 12,000 BTU/hr Arctic Next Gen (with capacities of 16,500 BTU/hr heating @ +5F/-15C, and 13,600 BTU/hr cooling under AHRI test conditions) couldn't handle the actual loads:
https://assets.haierappliances.com/s3fs-public/2019-08/Haier-2019-Arctic-Series_080919-WEB.pdf?_ga=2.134874361.940201865.1597077368-1246462175.1597077368
The fact that the 1-tonner can also throttle down to 3100 BTU/hr in cooling mode rather than 6500 BTU/hr minimum for the 1.5 tonner means it will run much longer & more comfortable cycles under part load.
For a quick sanity check on sizing, run a Loadcalc (dot net) estimate of the cooling and heating loads for that room. Even with aggressive assumptions on air tightness and a zero ventilation rate that tool usually oversizes by double-digit percentages, but not 2x. As long as you don't up-size from there it'll usually be OK- even undersizing the equipment by 15% from it's estimated load isn't very risky.
Haier is a large Chinese refrigerator and home appliance manufacturer, from tiny home refrigerators & freezers to central HVAC. My personal experience with them is limited to a 70 pint standalone room dehumidifier, which failed 20 minutes after the warranty was up, but that doesn't necessarily say much about how their heat pumps would fare. If the installer will stand by the equipment and the warranty terms are reasonable it may be worth a shot.
Midea (an even larger Chinese company with an even larger range of productsm from coffee makers & blenders to large commercial VRF HVAC systems) seems to have a better track record overall. Midea has been partnered with Toshiba for a couple of decades on refrigeration compressor technology, and has been partnered with Carrier for distribution of some of their smaller room AC & minisplit heat pumps under the Carrier label for over a decade now. It might not be much (if any) of a price premium to go with Midea/Carrier (and other Midea-made nameplates, such as Senville or Pioneer, Mr.Cool,) for a heat pump to serve that room. It's possible that Midea now makes Haier's cold-climate mini-splits too, but I don't know that to be the case.
Thank you Dana. A very comprehensive write up. Appreciate it. You definitely have a passion and/or a lot of experience here. I have heard about the oversizing from other sources too. I will add that the family room portion of this great room (13 x 20) does have a vaulted ceiling and two skylights. The dining area will have a large bay window 88 inches, and the kitchen another 66 in wide window (we are remodeling this space). We used to try to cool this area with a 10,000 window A/C but it was literally in the window behind a 50 inch TV in the family room, didn't do much. Your comments on the 3,100 BTU/hr and 6,500 BTU per hour and the cycling are significant. I am going to get 4-5 quotes from different suppliers - probably different brands, etc. It will be interesting what they each say about sizing and recommendation. The first contractor, recommending the Haier, said I could go 18K or 24K BTU, but we quickly settled on the 18K of the two choices.