Minisplit location
craiggerz
| Posted in General Questions on
Hi there,
I have a cottage in Ontario without any ductwork that I plan to add a minisplit unit to. I am looking for general advice if the unit I have picked out is appropriately sized (I believe it is) and the best position to place the inside head unit.
The unit I’m looking at is: https://senville.ca/18000-btu-mini-split-air-conditioner-sena-18hf/
Attached are some photos, I have done a floor plan (very rough sorry) and have some actual pictures which I show where they are taken from on the floor plan.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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More detailed info is required to get any useful advice.
Where in Ontario? Where is the floor plan?
Have you done a heat loss calculation? Failing that, what insulation level and air sealing does the house have?
The Senville mini splits are of dubious quality. They may be ok, but the lack of detailed performance info doesn't inspire a lot of confidence. I'm probably going to buy one for cooling only on my second floor, but when it came to getting one for the main house heating I steered clear of them and went with a cold climate listed model.
Hi Trevor,
The cottage is in Hastings Highlands. I have not done a heat loss calculation and I do not know the insulation levels and air sealing. I know the attic and floors are insulated but that's it for right now unfortunately.
Opps, very sorry I forgot the attachment. The main post has been updated now.
I got Senville to send me specs on their cold climate performance once. At -30°C (The temperature it's advertised as having "efficient performance" to) the COP is 0.80 for the 1 ton unit. That's not a typo, it's literally less efficient than a baseboard heater. So I'm very dubious about their other efficiency claims.
Was that one of the CD models or HF? The HF one appears to be their "cold climate" version, though I notice that the -30C claim shows up on just about all of the model pages.
The specs just have it listed as "Aura". My email had requested specs for the cold climate version. I didn't look much closer after seeing those abysmal specs. I've attached what they sent me.
That is pretty pathetic. Do you think it would be foolish to install one of these for cooling only? The price difference is pretty extreme. I can get a concealed duct unit from these guys for $1300. The same thing in another brand would be at least $5500.
Nah, I think you're fine for a cheap supplementary A/C option. I imagine there is a quality difference and the associated problems that sometimes arise with that but it seems hard to imagine it being a $4,000 difference. As a DIY project, it's probably fine. But I have zero experience with the units themselves.
Is it not a known fact that all mini-splits do not work well at below -20?
The plan was simply when it got this cold to supplement heat with the wood burning fireplace.
The idea is simply to save money when the temperature is in the range of 5 to -20 and also get AC during the summer.
Not a known fact at all, the comparable Mitsubishi 1 ton cold climate minisplit can output heat at -25°C at a COP of 1.87, almost twice as good as baseboard heat.
And that Mitsubishi unit would cost 5x as much and require that someone come in to install.
Sure would :)
Its another rebadged Midea using a GMCC Toshiba compressor. Your better off just buying an actual Midea. Parts and support are much better. My Midea came in a Carrier Midea North America box from Georgia. I have the Midea Premier hyperheat DLCSRAH12AAK. Paid $1099 shipped for it. The 18k version is $1300 shipped.
I assume your are installing this yourself? A quick google search shows many people getting terrible support from Senville. And as another poster mentioned there seems to be no submittals or much technical info published on these. I dont see any performance numbers anywhere.
Thanks, I'll take a look to see if I can find this in Canada.
It will be DIY but not by me, my brother and father have all the knowledge to do the install themselves except for access to a vacuum which we'll need to call someone in to do.
Availability in Canada is the major issue. Most resellers will not sell to anyone other than licensed contractors.
Would someone be willing to assist me with the other inquiry of a good location for the head unit?
The location where you've got the arrows is about as good as you're going to get, assuming it doesn't interfere with other things.
I found this place: http://www.canadacooling.com/
They have some recognizable brand names at least (LG, Samsung). You have to call to get pricing on most of them though.
Was able to find a good photo of that location and I doubt it will work... ? The photo is basically looking at "B" in the floor plan.
Thanks for that website, I'll take a closer look at the LG unit as I have heard good things about it and compare the prices.
Re: Placement
To the left of the woodstove looks like a good place to me. Easy to run the linesets, keeps the condenser off to the side of the house. Should be able to mix the air in the main area sufficiently. Of course, the bedrooms will be warmer than the main area, but I assume you are aware of this already.
This was also my original thought, the bedrooms will be tricky regardless of the location unless going with multi-units.
Thanks for the feedback.
OK so considering the comments in this thread I did some additional investigation.
(note all cdn prices not that it matters, they are just comparison to each other)
Senville SENA-18HF-Z $1500
LG Prestiage 18kBTU $4000
Fujittsu 18RLB $2200
Elios (he gave me 18HIW19230S1 model number which I can't find anything about) $1450
The 18RLB is entry and claims only to -15 and $700 more than the Senville, would it really be a better unit? It's so incredibly difficult to find reviews for any of these units online but the Senville has an abundance of reviews all saying it works great. So needless to say I'm very confused on how I should proceed.
I would go with the Senville.
I found some info on the Senville as I located a spec sheet for it. It cross references to a Midea Premier hyper heat as it has the exact same specs including the same GMCC Toshiba compressor. I have the 12k premier unit and love it. Midea makes solid affordable splits and are involved with Carrier now here.
Almost all these off brand names are really rebadged Mideas or Grees. The spec sheets always match right up to them.
I attched a picture of the spec sheet for the Senville. You can compare it yourself to the Midea Premier DLCSRAH18AAK and see its identical.