Heating and cooling with Solar mini splits: Solar direct heating and cooling
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- Опубликовано: 27 июл 2024
- 100% solar powered minisplits. Heating and cooling the whole house with solar minisplits. Solar air conditioning offgrid or hybrid. These minisplits are solar direct during the day and can run off AC grid power without solar
Contact Johnny valentine for consulting, design, sales, and installation.
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Jv@gainsolarpower.com
www.gainsolarpower.com 
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Excellent video as usual. I think I would have to say that you may be the BEST solar installer in the world.
Wow, thanks!
I second that
I had the privilege of visiting Mr. Johnny Valentine at his residence this morning, and I will attest the warmth these things created. Outside temps were in the low 30's outside, but it was toasty and warm throughout the house. Very cool to see these running on DC via solar in real time. And the sun was shining on a cold winter day, so it was a good day for solar.
Thanks jeremy
It is quite amazing how far the technology has come along with mini split heat pumps, going PV direct is definitely the way to go when possible. Since I already have a telecom 48 volt nominal buss on the other side of the house, going with their off grid model might be a better option. I finally got it approval by the spousal ordinance board, so I can put it on this years budget to get one installed in the bedroom.
I would probably do a regular ac mini split on that application.
20,800 watt hrs in that little farm house. As backup. That’s amazing.
Very nice! Would love to get me one of those. Thanks for sharing your expertise.
I’ve got a couple of the hotspot energy 12 K units and they work very well. It’s pretty satisfying to see them running on nothing but solar!
They are cool. I wish it was a more mainstream technology. Have you had any trouble with them
Inverter mini split may work wonderful with solar, I installed a 3 ton gree seer 20 inverter and when is running at 78 it’s only using 4.5 amps so about 1kwh
Thank you for all the info, it's awesome stuff! My system: 3xSolArk12k+3xeVaultMax w/112xRecN365(4 are spares:)
Jesus man! Amazing!
I have those exact solar powered heat pumps. Have been using them for over a year now...
Glad your doing well Johnny !! Happy solar days
Thank you burton!
Johnny doesnt need a Mr Cool..He freakin is Mr. Cool!
Nice job Johhny!
Thank you
saw an interesting install using inverter style mini split heatpumps Basically build an insulated box around the outdoor unit. Then bury 6 inch pipe thin wall tubing 8 ft below grade. The pipe enters and exits the insulated box. So you end up year round supplying air that is the same temperature as you soil. Where you live likely around 58 -59 F.. So even if it is 20 degree outside you still have the same soil temperature. If you run the pipe out 20 ft and back and 50 ft across you will end up with about 6000 btu of cooling power and about the same cop with a delta t of around 10 degree which is a darn site better than what you have now. you will need to add a very small ventilation fan to move the heat thru the pipe. This in conjunction with the inverter style heatpump and you will discover the amount of power needed is going to amaze you
I’ve done that a million times. 😂A quarter inch zip screw, screwed back into that plastic cover will tighten it up and keep it on next time you pull the disconnect.
Your PV is about the size of my home array. I’m powering 6.25 tons of heat pumps on a sunny day, plus the water heater, electric range, miscellaneous. I also have to use a wood burner below 30F and cloudy. Looking great down there.
Yeah they are junk but they work.
Love your setup. I will be adding more solar as 9400 watts is not enough in winter. 1 more inverter and 5kw more solar should get me close.
my Goodman 3 ton central air unit I just added last spring has a heat pump base addition. It runs at 12 amps to cool my 1948 house. My solar system runs it with ease via my duel inverters. I also have a Fujitsu 3 ton mini split in basement. I can heat my basement and use furnace fan to circulate through my whole house if I lost natural gas or they were down. I also have a fireplace as well. I have 10 year warranty on labor and parts 100%.
Sounds like a good system. Yes 9400 watts used to be a big system but realistically the average American home needs about 25kw
@@GainSolarPower I can see that for winter. I have had couple great days of sun and my batteries are above 80% now. I have done more in 3 days than 15 days in Jan or DEC. 45.1kw on Jan 1st. that got my batteries 80% charged. Are there solar panels that produce better in winter than others?
Nice vid, even nicer array you have! I looked in to those Hotspot Energy units but they wanted $2339.35 for one 18k btu unit delivered, way too expensive, thankfully EG4 came out with 12k btu and 24k btu units 120v or 240v and a lot cheaper, the 12kbtu unit is only $1299.00 and with the fedtax credit even better. I got 4 of th2 12k btu 120v units for about $4500.00 and now my 5 ton central a/c is turned off at the breaker :)
To qualify for the federal credit. Do you need to install with permit and professional?
@@thienthan324 Probably, I never got the credit, I had a friend who is an electrician and another who does hvac help me get them installed
I would love to run one into my basement, just to cut heating costs
Heat Pumps to solve inflation!! Love It!
My 18K is now 100% off AC via the solark but I have the option to go back to DC direct if I every need to
I may have to rob Peter to pay Paul pretty soon too I have another 12k I’m going to put in on my system
@@GainSolarPower unless you run those heat pumps full tilt as long as the sun shines you'll squeeze more out of your solar letting the solarks power them
Did you add insulation to the house?
What is the SEER rating of your mini splits?
Do you use batteries as well with your system?
What do you actually have for batteries and inverters ?
Nice work Johnny! What is the minimum and maximum solar panel power recommended for those mini splits? You said you have 6 pv panels per unit.
The 18 pv panels (dedicated only to mini splits) will sit idle after the units satisfy the heating or cooling load. In a constricted residential solar footprint where solar panel placement is limited like my house, is why we opted not to go this route. What did I miss here?
You didn’t miss anything. I’m just showing what I did. I’m not in a constricted residential footprint
Our power company does the same thing, that’s pretty nice. Looks great. We run a normal 5K Train AC/Heat.
On the MR COOL, system are they 120V? So you need a soft start on them.
It's all inverter driven so that's not a concern.
@@sprockkets my house is 1287 sq feet.
@@mikejf4377 what are you inquiring about
What brand is the units?
You did no say how long this mini-split system has been operating, so will you do a cost saving solar V grid in the future? By the way, loved the videos you do. Thanks
At least 6 months, as he mentioned then running in cooling mode. If you don’t install a 143kWh battery, your pay off is sooner, but then you’ll be back on the grid or a Gen on cloudy days. Is it worth it? Well, my off-grid system means about as much to me as the $80k+ trucks/suv in many driveways. It’s another fun, expensive hobby similar to fishing with the $80k boat or ATV’ing with $80K 2- Razors and a trailer.
So I don’t have any way to tell that. I’ve been running off solar since I moved in. I’ve had them going for two years. Most of the time I make
More power than I use.
How much for your hotspot unit?
Cool
So the next question, that might be interesting is, can you store the heat or cool in thermal mass for the night time use? Create a thermal battery. I think this is possible, it it worth it? Let's Explore. Water is a great store of thermal mass. A case of bottled water, weighs about 27 pounds and if you swing the temperature of the water by 40 degree, say from 70 to 110 degree F that is 1000 BTU of stored heat. The small 1 ton units heat at 12,000 BTU per hour, so if you had one unit it could theoretically heat 12 cases of water per hour storing 12,000 BTU. If we assume four hours of full sun every day in winter, and we had a stack of 48 cases of bottled water you could store 48,000 BTU every day. I would imagine a set of eight cases 6 high by eight long on a shelf along a wall where the heat from a dedicated unit could be directed into the stack in a circular airflow pattern. A cabinet door could them be opened and closed directing the heat into the stack or into the room. A similar door could be operated to let the heat into the room. Reinforcement might be needed under a floor as this is a lot of weight. This thermal mass could effectively give you the stored heat equivalent of four hours of run time all the way through the night. In some cases, a setup like this could alleviate a significant amount of nighttime heating and cooling needs. In theory this would be about the same amount of heat as burning 6 pounds of wood at 100% efficiency. Rock, concrete block or other thermal mass also might be used instead. Water bottles might leak long term. Water bottles were chosen because if taken out of the cases they have a high degree of air circulation around them. We have all taken a bottle of water out of the fridge and forgotten about it and with a little while it has raised 40 degrees from 32 to 72 degrees. A hybrid hot water heater putting this heat into a large water tank, with a radiator might also work, but bottled water is so cheap. At $5 a case, 50 cases is $250. The shelving is also going to cast about the same. Obviously, a house might take multiple setups. If there were three setups, one at each of three minisplits, and all the minisplits were double the size, allowing half the heat to go into our water storage battery and half going into the room, this could store a massive amount of heat or cool so people could sleep at night. This would be great for people in an off grid system. If a unit uses the equivalent of 1000 watts per hour this would store 4 killowatts of power each (48 cents) day.
It’s not really worth it for all the complexity. A 50 gallon water heater stores about 5kw of heat. A $1500 5kw battery does the same. It’s so much easier to just put the energy in a battery then to have a complex thermal water storage system.
Nice video! Awesome system! If I run 12k unit, what is minimum solar wattage required?
They don’t pull more than 1kw. Probably 3-6 400 w panels. Depends on your location and sun hours. It will only take what it needs
@@GainSolarPower Great! Thank you for replying!
i enjoyed your video. i'm totall off grid
is there any advantage to connecting minisplits directly to panel instead of going through an invertor and batteries if i have the invertor and batteries set up? . 120v a/c minisplit cost a lot less than dc/ac minisplit.
Hotspot energy makes a 12000 Btu mini split that works directly off of 48 Vdc. Battery based, no AC input, designed for applications where no grid power is available.
It's supposed to be much more energy efficient than turning DC to AC, then back to DC again. You're also not relying on your inverter, and stressing it more than need be.
I'm running a Senville 12,000btu off solar but I'm completely off grid in the city
Great
I've run my senville 12000 BTU mini-split on my solar with battery backup I'm completely off.
what is the power uesage on them when in ac // wattage /amps 220 voltage /thinking doing same thing but am think of power useage when you have to power them on grid
About 1300watts
I'm a DIY non-technical so please keep that in mind. I was not clear on how your A/C units were connected to all that solar. To keep it simple, can I just connect the MC-4 connectors directly from my solar panels to the Mini Split or do I have to go through a bunch of stuff I don't understand like "auto switches, charge controllers, step up/down transformers, inverters, ......."? IF, I can just connect my solar panels running just two wires from my panels and connecting with MC-4 connectors (in other words easy enough for me to understand), do I connect my panels in series for lots of volts (how much is ideal for a mini split like any of yours?) or do I connect my panels in parallel for lots of current (and again, how much is best?). I can do the math on adding each panel as far as how many watts each panel is and how many amps or watts would be created by how they were connected, but what do the units need ideally for the most efficient operation? I live in the southwest so cooling is the priority. To think I could cool my house in the summer with just panels, wire, and a mini split system(s) blows-my-mind!
I really hope this is true: direct connection without all that other smart guy stuff being required.
I have 6 400 watt panels connected in series. That’s one plugged in to the next positive to negative 6 times. They run right into the unit. Yes. The answer is yes to your question. But I recommend also connecting grid power to the units so you can use at night
@@GainSolarPower OK! Happy Days!
So, I am guessing you are running around 52 (Voc) open circuit voltage/panel for a total of around 315-350 Volts DC direct to the unit(?) Ture?
Does it/would it hurt the unit if it is NOT backed up with a source of AC for when the sun goes down and the unit is slowly starved of DC power? Does the unit internally have a Low Voltage Disconnect?
Is there any special precaution(s) I need to take running that much DC voltage (assuming all wire gauges, fuses, disconnects, ....are properly sized)?
I remember 7th Grade science class and the teacher asking: "Which is more dangerous, AC or DC?" The teacher's answer was: "DC because in household AC you have a moment where your muscles can relax and let go. Whereas with DC it is constant and you will not be able to let go."
So I still remember that!
Thanks for all your help.
I’ve got a 24x30 metal building I want to put an 18,000 btu mini split in and run with an off grid solar system. Can you help me figure out what I need and get me the right solar setup ?
I can help email me jv@gainsolarpower.com
Is this worth buying if you only have direct solar to plug in? I’d like it to run with solar when it can then not run when there’s no solar.
If all you have is Solar then I think this is about your only option. I don’t know of many other solar direct mini splits.
How does it work when clouds come over? Whats the min power to start it? Doesn't make sense to me how it works.
It seamlessly pulls from the grid if it’s available. If not the fans keep on spinning but I assume the compressor cuts off. The coil is still cold, it’s not like the refrigerant immediately warms up. I have a 2400 watt solar array feeding it so even in cloudy conditions there is still power present.
Does the unit run on both at the same time if the solar is there but low...
Yes, it seamlessly blends grid and solar solar
If you connect only to Solar without connecting to AC will these work?
Yea that’s the coolest feature for sure
How much DC do you need to run the mini-splits? Specifically wondering if you run it off a 48V battery with a booster getting you up to 96-97V?
Amazing what you can learn if you watch the whole video. 😊
I’ll leave this here for anyone who is interested - DC 100-300V, 15A
Power input 1390W
Max input 2520W
Compressor LRA 30A
So yes, using boost converters or batteries in series, you can power off battery (I’m not an electrician).
Running directly off 6 400w panels in series but it would do it off 4.
Hotspot energy makes a mini split made strictly for 48 volt battery based systems
@@johnwyman6126 thank you!
I want to condition the air in my basement with a mini split and run it from the twelve solar panels on my roof. Which mini split do you recommend?
If the roof top panels are already installed and wired to an inverter a standard minisplit will be the cheapest. I’d get a brand name unit a local tech will warranty and service. Keep the filter clean..
@@GainSolarPower my solar panels aren’t connected to anything right now. Do you have recommendations for a brand/model of mini split I should look into?
@@plrempert looks at the eg4 hybrids units or the hotspot AC/dc
I have the hotspots they have had good tech support but I wish I wouldn’t have needed it
What is the square footage that you are using hvac for?
Rewind
About 3000 sqft
So is it able to connect to a standard 12/2 wire?
Yeah on the ac side.
@@GainSolarPower sweet! Think I’m gonna check em out and possibly get one. I really need one in my garage so as long as it can be powered by a 12/2 wire them I’m all set
What brand was your mini split
Hotspot AC/DC 12c and Hotspot AC/DC 18C
What brand mini split are they?
Hotspot
Look at all the money you saved, just as well you have feed all those kids you have.
At $100 per mouth, per week nowadays.
They can eat. That’s for sure. Thanks
Food? Are you talking egg money? Not sure he'll ever get there!
9:53 There's Johnny!
That heat pump is probably pulling 30amp in heating mode not cooling mode.
Are we talking about the mini splits?
There are two things that are changing the world right now and they are lithium batteries and mini split heat pumps . The fossil fuel industry is very worried !
I agree!
I agree that there are certain “applications” of the tech but not ready for prime time in other applications. I’m doing rainwater, solar and mini split/wood boiler for hvac but I still need diesel/gas for my equipment and propane for backup.
a few things. 1. Why do you care if people believe you when it comes to things being solar operated or not? Did you do this for the pats on the back form others or did you do it for YOU? 2. Concerning parts. If you're that worried about the availability of parts in the future, you could stock up on a few of those systems now or keep your eyes open for used/discounted units. Just a thought.
Have you ever seen a 100% solar driven heat pump/air conditioner?
No use stocking up on parts if you don’t know what to change.
I did the video for you bill. So you could write the above comment
Keep um coming.
Question I already have solar. I'm in rural area. I did my own install. So u mentioned no inspection. I didn't get any because I heard essentially if it's off grid you don't need any. Now I don't feed back into my grid but I am connected to it for low battery auto bypass. Does this no inspection still apply? Also can panels be on the house with no inspection or ground mount only. I have both. I'm not using rapid module shutdown but I do have disconnects at ground level for both arrays. Here's a long 30 min video of my system. If you have the time to critique it I'd be honored
ruclips.net/video/nfNCCO3sBZo/видео.html
I haven’t watched yet but I will try to get to it. Thanks for watching
@@GainSolarPower like I said I'd be honored. No rush. Not a request or demand. Just honored. I enjoy your vids.
Go off grid. Yes
whilst this is an interesting concept (those solar mini splits) and i myself would definitively dabble around with them, if they weren't that expensive compared to the normal AC,
they are not all that practical, particularly for an island system. you want all the solar panels feeding into your main system to charge up the battery. i am talking about cloudy days. and then ! see if there is enough power to run a heat pump. but ... that is just the way i am seeing it.
most arguments gain solar brought up, are just as valid when you use regular ac heat pumps and all your solar panels are connected to the main system.
Yea but solar direct is super cool. If I’m offgrid and my inverter goes down I still have cooling.
Kind of depends on your situation, if I add another rack of solar I'll have to add another charge controller, more batteries and potentially another inverter (which I'm going to do anyways since I'm over-panelled now).
With a solar powered mini-split another rack of panels is comparatively cheaper and an extension cord would be all one of this 120V splits needs.
@@Zirrad1
the point was:
you are losing the designated solar panels for the dc mini splits. so you do not need to build another rack!
a further point:
you do not necessarily need more inverters. you just overpower the system and then during cloudy days you have more power.
the point is feeding everything to AC you have the freedom to use it to whatever. besides those dc aircons are much more expensive require more wiring.
@@ursodermatt8809 Already over-panelled, by quite a bit - as stated in my note, that simply points out there is a at least one situation where adding dedicated panels would be more cost efficient - but go ahead and have the last word repeating what you've already posted.