Good video, but one thing I don’t understand is the assertion that you’re humidifying the place by evaporation the condensate. But you’re not humidifying the place, you’re merely reducing the amount that you dehumidify it by. You’re only recirculating the moisture that’s already there, right? Your not adding any moisture.
“My 300 pound DIY heat pump project”. My first thought: I didn’t think portable heat pumps were nearly that heavy! My second thought: Oh, he probably means currency, not weight. D’oh!
I was looking for a more economical way to avoid putting central air heat pump in a house and use geothermal piping and fluid to a radiator for the heat transfer in winter and reverse in summer when it is warm. This system may be what I am looking for instead of spending $30,000 for complete geothermal system. Not sure if the portable system will heat/cool a 1500 square foot house unless hooked to the duct work. Thanks.
I have a similar idea in Poland. $200 new, $100 used annually. one of the exchangers will be replaced with a gas water central heating exchanger and I have a 2.6 kW heat pump for $200. good luck with the project.
Hi Matthew, I came here because I'm thinking about the same idea for a while now. Nice to see that you have managed to get this working. Do you know what COP you +- reach? And did you calculate what the electricity did cost you last season compared to your regular gas bill?
Yes COP was 3 when using outside air But 2.7 when using inside air. Electric is usually 3x the cost of gas so it costs the same as gas boiler to run. Unfortunately, it's not powerful enough to completely replace my gas boiler. I would need two of them to do that. But it did replace most of my gas consumption. I hardly use any gas now just loads of electric. I'm going to try a solar air heater next to replace the remaining gas.
I'd like to see a better explanation as to what you are talking about with the outside air being colder than the exhaust air? The exhaust air should always be colder as it's removed heat from it so unless the exhaust air is coming from the garage only then only then can the exhaust be warmer than the outside air. If the source of the exhaust air is from the outside air. You probably need to try duct return air from the house to the units intake. On your video you seem to be ducting the outside air into the condenser part of the system (the top coil that is heating the air) - the air in the house (maybe not the garage) is always going to be warmer than outside air so you should be using air from the house to heat otherwise your just constantly heating cold air. By all means use the warmer garage air (which assuming this is warmer than outside air) as the source of air for heat or just use the outside air but your asking the system to work harder by using fresh outside air to go through the hot part of the system.
I would love to be able to do this but it is far too technical for me to duct my house etc. Are three professionals who fit portable pumps for a living?
Portable heat pumps are not something I was even aware of. I duct the air from my Crawlspace into the intake of my heat pump to minimize the temperature variance from seasonal changes.
