Solar powered air conditioner WORKS without the SUN!  

Nice job. Two criticisms though from a 40 year veteran HVAC company owner. 1- You should not interrupt the white neutral wire in the disconnect. It is a two wire disconnect for 240 volts where both lines are "hot". A neutral wire should never be broken or switched. Simply connect the white wires with a wire nut and you will be code compliant. Only the black wire should get disconnected by the disconnect. 2- the coil of line set is bad news. Not only is it less efficient due to temp loss but when the coil is vertical like that it can become an oil trap and cost you a compressor. It is best to cut the line and reflare it to the correct length. This requires the use of a vacuum pump after connecting. DIYers typically do not have a vacuum pump. Just my two cents..

Kudos to EG4 that their equipment shuts down when there is no sun and starts back up again when the sun comes up. My 3000 watt EG4 inverter does the same thing. No intervention required. For those of you who want to run this day and night in a house, run it off an EG4 inverter on AC. Their inverter handles up to 5000 watts of solar. Hook it up to the EG4 battery. The solar will run the mini split and any extra solar will charge the battery and you never have to touch anything. I wouldn't do it for this shed but I would set it up for a house. The inverter is about $700 and the battery is about $1200

Love it. Need to get one for my garage!

You do some of the best videos with explanations I have ever seen, very cool stuff

Very well explained excellent job! Thank you for all the info. I’ll definitely get one!

Hi Tad, enjoyed your video again as you explore and learn about the features on these. Someone said on last vid you dont have Wifi available (yet?) at the shed?? There are lots of additional features in the Wifi app, shows power blend stats and usage, you can schedule on/off times and so on. Thx! Great job on $50 discount code as well.

Great videos really like the updates ..

I thought the max AC draw was 16A, which would make a 20A circuit breaker appropriate to prevent overload on a 15A CB. Since the wire being used (12/3?) is already sized for a 20A CB, then a 15A CB is undersized for the conductor. It’s common for 15A & 20A CB (14/3 vs 12/3) to be mixed in inadequately inspected residential installations. 😎

Awesome video

I would say the 38seer version would be more effective over a 24 hour time frame. You would only lose about 10-15% loss going through mppt and inverter. More panels on your charge controller would top off the batteries when the heat pump is not running, and in bad weather it would take less charge from a generator to run the 38seer vs the model you have. Just my thoughts and either system would serve you well. If I was doing a house I would use one of each type, if the inverter went down you would have heating or cooling while the sun is shining enough on the panels.

@Taddydigest Love your videos! Thank you. Can you please explain to me the reason for the excess lineset coiled behind the unit?

You need a DC amp meter. Klein makes a nice one for around $100 available at Home Depot. Then you could check how much power your unit is getting from the solar panels.

thanks COOP ...

Just curious why you don't have solar on the 2 directions.North and South like you know, you need just a question.And then why did you just add some batteries to run thanothing during the night

You should always run the solar panels to a battery and charge the batteries when the loads aren’t being used. That builds up power throughout the day and uses it as long as the batteries have charge.

wonder what kinda of battery back up would be needed to supply for low sun/night use?

thanks Jimmi Simpson!

Hey Tad, you should let me come over and check it out!!! Pretty frickin cool!!

Question for you. Does the unit automatically restart after a loss of solar input, when running on dc only? Thank you sir. Fine work.

I looked into this after stumbling on your other video yesterday. I was looking into creating a set up like this last summer for my shop before knowing those hybrid units existed to run direct from solar. I got a shop out back with 50 amps from 3 circuits going to it. 15a for lights, 20a for office outlets and office window ac. 20a for shop outlets which air compressor, car lift, hoist, fan and fridge are on but those are only powered occasionally except fan and fridge and 1 at a time. So I thought a mini split run on solar be perfect cause when i needed it would be like 11 am to 6m when panels generating most power. and it wouldnt over load my limited circuits. now my question is: the roof faces east and west but is a fairly gentle slope. Would the included panels be enough if all are on the west side? Or should i get an extra panel or 2 for the east side to help with late morning power to keep it on 100% solar? I guess you can use it as a heater too cause its basically a heat pump. running it in the winter on AC wouldnt be a big deal cause not using tools and stuff as much and would just want to keep the building above 40 at least when not using it to keep stuff from freezing. I was going to go with the 24k kit. the part that would be heated and cooled is something like 600sqft but 15 ft ceiling at peak and in the south i figured the extra cooling power would help cause we will be opening a 10 ft wide sliding door often to pull stuff in to work on.

Brutal

Build a nicer looking shed.great video

what kind of spray foam in shed ? closed or open cell ? how thick ?

Great video. Very well done. QUESTION: 1- if solar produces less power than does it take partial power from the grid or completely switches over to ac? In your video you were still getting 50V from solar. So basically is that a waste? 2- is it auto switch or we have to manually switch it? Thank you

Can you explain what the inverter is for? During your installation video, it looked like you plugged the solar panels right to the condenser, without any extra inverter needed. In this video, you have one mounted to the wall, and it seemed like it’s part of the circuit somehow. I can see it’s what’s producing your 120v, some I’m guessing it’s a battery backup system, separate from the solar panel for the split, ya?

That's a pretty revolutionary system. Do you expect it to explode into a widely used system any time soon?

When the sun goes down and the unit shuts off, does it retain all of its memory? Like Wi-Fi connection last temperature and mode for when the sun comes up the next day it just starts up and connects to Wi-Fi and starts running again. Or does it lose the whole set up and it have to be turned back on manually And reconnect to Wi-Fi.

Question Do they have a model with a heat option?

Does your unit pull from AC and solar if the solar isn't enough or is it just one or the other?

👍 cool ir runs on120 volts to the 220 ones are a pane

So, when the unit is connected to both DC (solar panels) and AC power, does it automatically switch between the two power sources as needed to maintain power or do you have to switch it manually?

Thanks for answering my earlier question. It may not be obvious, but when you have it running off AC @10:10 and get 3.6A, it is likely drawing from both solar AND AC. I also found the manual for this, and it says on p3 that it can draw mostly DC power and the remainder as AC. You should have no need to ever manually switch power types as it will run from solar when (and however much) is available. Nice work!

so you had 240 volts coming in from the panels, is there a charge controller anywhere, inline or in the unit ?

Wondering if is there away to store power from solar power

How do you know how many panels you need and the size of each panel

What's with the coiled up lineset?

Hello Tad. Great job on the video. Hope you can help me on this question. I want to purchase this AC/Heater unit for my new shed. I wanted to hook up a 30 amp box inside then plug into a 30 plug. Want to run washer and gas dryer. This AC, 2 TV’s, ceiling fan and strip led lights. I was looking for a solar hook up to help of set the coast of the electric bill in this shed. What do you recommend? Thank you

What kind of insulation is that?

Isn't a 12K BTU unit way oversized for that shed?

I swear, if I hear one more time about "an oil trap" from those comment geniuses...

Can you over panel the unit?

So 71 is as cold as it gets?

You already have batteries for 115 volt operation which I assume you have solar to recharge the batteries, so why spend the extra money on a solar powered mini split? I would just power a regular mini split off of the batteries and inverter.

QUESTION: If you do not have ANY A/C (ie. completely OFF GRID), what happens when the Sun goes down? Then what happens when the sun comes up? Will it automatically turn on to last settings, once sun comes up in morning, (without Any A/C)? Really important info, because if it works and restarts completely off grid, I will be buying several of these!

to bad its not 220vac 110vac are just weak for me

That is way overkill for a lawnmower shed.

You are risking damaging your mini split with those Hyperion 395w solar panels. That solar mini split calls for a ISC of PV less than 12A and those panels are ISC rated at 13.7A.

Who cares.