I need 5000 cooling BTU or less to maintain temperatures below 82 degrees in my supremely well insulated 165 sq ft room. Generally through-wall A/C start around 6700 BTU or more, and don't include heat until you get to 7500 (lowest I've found, but old fashioned mechanical control model) or 11900 (top of the Friedrich line Kuhl with auto changeover) BTU.
So I'll have to forgo built-in heat, and supply heat separately. The lowest BTU through-wall unit I've found is actually very nice, a 5500 BTU commercial grade Friedrich XStar XQ05M10 with digital controls, MoneySaver auto-fan (fan is off unless compressor is running), and other nice features. The XStar is the 2nd in quality and features only to Friedrich's Kuhl line, but nearly as nice and sophisticated. Instead of 7 day setback system, it features 24 hour timer, actually I like that better anyway, much easier to set. It has auto adjusting SmartFan and Comfortwatch temperature monitor and remote control.
For heat, I'll use my Delonghi radiator, set to low (600 W). It's very safe, only getting touchably warm, and I believe 600W is high enough to get the job done (assuming it's online all the time, and not simply turned on for a blast of heat, which it doesn't do well anyway) and low enough power draw that even if, due to malfunction, it ran simultaneously with the above AC, it wouldn't come close to overloading even a 15 amp circuit (my intention is to get 120V 20A circuit).
The problem in this application is that the Delonghi, like most portable electric heaters, has a horrible thermostat. No matter how hot or cold it is, it cycles on and off. So it cycles on during the hottest days, wasting energy, and cycles off on the coldest days, especially if you've set it low enough to minimize on cycling. The solution is to get some sort of remote thermostatically controlled AC switch. I'll look for that. In the worst case, in principle, I could build one with conventional thermostat and relay. Then an additional fan could plugged into the same thermostatically controlled switch to help circulate the air.
Then, with AC and heat through separate units, I've achieved both low cooling BTU for max efficiency and auto-changeover. That's what I want. Set it up and forget it. I hate being turned into a slave to operate my climate control systems semi-manually.
*****
At Amazon, the XQ05M10 air conditioner gets a lousy review from some guy who complains about the noises it makes. The XQ06M10A gets great reviews. The "A" suggests it is a slightly revised model. The difference is only 300 BTU (from 5500 to 5800) and it uses only a few hundred milliamps more of electricity. So I think I will get the XQ06M10A. Seems like Friedrich would have intended to make 5000 and 6000 BTU units, but somehow it didn't work that way.
So I'll have to forgo built-in heat, and supply heat separately. The lowest BTU through-wall unit I've found is actually very nice, a 5500 BTU commercial grade Friedrich XStar XQ05M10 with digital controls, MoneySaver auto-fan (fan is off unless compressor is running), and other nice features. The XStar is the 2nd in quality and features only to Friedrich's Kuhl line, but nearly as nice and sophisticated. Instead of 7 day setback system, it features 24 hour timer, actually I like that better anyway, much easier to set. It has auto adjusting SmartFan and Comfortwatch temperature monitor and remote control.
For heat, I'll use my Delonghi radiator, set to low (600 W). It's very safe, only getting touchably warm, and I believe 600W is high enough to get the job done (assuming it's online all the time, and not simply turned on for a blast of heat, which it doesn't do well anyway) and low enough power draw that even if, due to malfunction, it ran simultaneously with the above AC, it wouldn't come close to overloading even a 15 amp circuit (my intention is to get 120V 20A circuit).
The problem in this application is that the Delonghi, like most portable electric heaters, has a horrible thermostat. No matter how hot or cold it is, it cycles on and off. So it cycles on during the hottest days, wasting energy, and cycles off on the coldest days, especially if you've set it low enough to minimize on cycling. The solution is to get some sort of remote thermostatically controlled AC switch. I'll look for that. In the worst case, in principle, I could build one with conventional thermostat and relay. Then an additional fan could plugged into the same thermostatically controlled switch to help circulate the air.
Then, with AC and heat through separate units, I've achieved both low cooling BTU for max efficiency and auto-changeover. That's what I want. Set it up and forget it. I hate being turned into a slave to operate my climate control systems semi-manually.
*****
At Amazon, the XQ05M10 air conditioner gets a lousy review from some guy who complains about the noises it makes. The XQ06M10A gets great reviews. The "A" suggests it is a slightly revised model. The difference is only 300 BTU (from 5500 to 5800) and it uses only a few hundred milliamps more of electricity. So I think I will get the XQ06M10A. Seems like Friedrich would have intended to make 5000 and 6000 BTU units, but somehow it didn't work that way.
No comments:
Post a Comment