Topic discussion - A/C

AIR CONDITIONING:

This is not our house (link in body of post from JetsonGreen.com)
Next is air conditioning.  This has been quite the sore spot for us as we go along.  It would go along with our ideals that we do not need A/C.  But that is kind of difficult to say.  Just as you need to close off an area so that you can condition the air, is the same way you need the same effect to HEAT the same area in winter.  It does not stay hot all year long.  So leaving just our bedroom with A/C is neat, but when it is 30 degrees in December, and you want to make breakfast in the kitchen, that is certainly going to be a problem quickly.

I am turning to an article I read yesterday from JetsonGreen.com.  This couple built quite a large home.  However, because they used green building techniques, they do not need the same type of coventional A/C unit that most houses require.  If you check out these photos, you can see that for this WHOLE house, they are using on mini/split ductless A/C unit.  I priced this unit around $1500.  Now that is amazing.

There are a lot of factors that are not yet being put into the equation though at this time.  For instance in order to be green we are going to incorporate wind, solar, and battery backup systems.  However, what I have heard about A/C is that it draws a monster load.  This type of load "cannot be given by alternative energy".  I think that this is true in a small sense.  But I believe you can cross a threshold where it does become possible.  I am just not sure that my system is going to cross or even get close to that threshold.  This will be addressed more when we get into alternative energy, and those sources.  For now, I believe that even though we plan to have an A/C unit, we probably won't use it most of the time. 

To explain the pictures fully, the first is of the house in the link listed above.  The second is an outside shot of the A/C compressor up against the house.  The third picture is an up close of the compressor sitting on a bit of concrete outside the kitchen of the house.  The fourth picture is a close up of the connectors that run through the walls and into the kitchen of the house.  The fifth picture is of the Kitchen.  This shows just how small in relativity to the rest of the kitchen and house that the unit actually is in size.  I felt that the blower device that sits on the wall in the kitchen was nearly so small, that I wondered if people would notice what I was trying to show in the picture.  So I put a red circle around it and an arrow pointing to it.  I can hardly believe how small it is.  I read on Fujitsu's website that you can have up to 8 blowers for this 1 compressor unit.  HOLY MOLY!  I believe that for our needs, if we work smart and hard enough, this will cover our needs.  It is hard to wrap my brain around the fact that instead of making folks' houses more efficient to use less energy, that they buy bigger A/C units.  Those units cost not just thousands of dollars to buy and power, but to maintain should they break down.  I had a lady in my office just pay $3000 to replace some parts in her A/C unit.  She was literally just saying she was going insane with no A/C. 

If there are any suggestions or comments, please feel free to leave them in the comments.  Help and discussion is what we are looking for at this time.

Comments

  1. For a unit with asian engineering they sure had a BF when they left out the back light on the handheld and the wall mount thermostat.

    Also, if you have a wall mount thermostat then the unit will only cool to 67... important when the gals get the hot flashes.

    Also the mini split wall mounts are the way to go if you can be OK with the bump on the wall, as the above ceiling units if they have to have any ducting simply do not have enough air flow to make them worthwhile.

    ClimateMagic in San Antonio installs these things.

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  2. Thanks Art. Really appreciate the advice. I will take all that into consideration and consult management! I do concur on the first comment though... I mean if you have to turn on the light in the middle of the night just to see what the heck temp it is... so much for the remote... might as well just get up and go check.

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