Split air conditioning question

[Deguza]

Hello all,

I am about to purchase an air conditioner. I am considering a Pioneer Split AC.

The only suitable wall is in the middle of the home, about 10 feet away from the exterior, about 10ft up from the ground level. The unit comes with a 25-ft line length, making it feasible to connect to the outside unit.

I can route the hose and the cable two ways:

1- Through a wall then through the interior of a series of cabinets and then through the exterior wall. or 2- Down through an interior wall and then through the crawl space to the exterior through a hole through the exterior wall.

Q1: Which one do you think may be better?

Q2: Also, what is "1-ton", "2-ton", etc. mean when it comes to air conditioning?

Thanks,

Deguza

[trader_4]

Through the wall and crawl space sounds better than through cabinets. I would only do the latter if the other way was much harder. Going through cabinets is half-assed.

1 ton = 12K BTUS.

[Dean Hoffman]

A general rule when moving liquids is to keep bends to a minimum.

[Marilyn Manson]

Nothing personal, but if you don't know the difference between 1-ton and 2-ton, you need to do a lot more homework before buying a system.

When it comes to AC, bigger is not usually better. If you get a 2-ton system when you only need a 1 ton system (what is the load based on climate, size of space to cool, air leakage, etc.?) you may run into problems with short cycling, iced up coils, etc. If the AC system is too big for the load, it will not run long enough to remove the humidity (one of its main jobs). If it's too small, it'll struggle to do its job and run much more than it should, wasting energy and shortening the life of the system.

Spend 10 minutes here. Rich Trethewey will explain AC tonnage as he troubleshoots a homeowner's system:

You might also consider getting an HVAC pro in to assess your house and recommend the proper size system.

[Deguza]

Thanks!

Deguza

[Deguza]

I hear you.

I got an engineering degree using metric and related units (degrees C, joules, liters, millimeters, cms, kilometers, etc.) I also took an HVAC course. I still remember the fundamentals after five decades. I use imperial units these days, but I never dealt with HVAC here, and do not know the terminology.

One of the things we were taught was load calculations. However, here in Silicon Valley, mild temperatures and a small well-insulated home make it easier to figure out what I need. Today we have a heatwave and the temperature reached 95F briefly. My room is 82F degrees. Big deal! It will drop down to 65F tonight and will be very comfortable to sleep. Most of the winter I don't even turn on the heater...

I love this group. I will definitely spend more time here. There is nothing like advice from experts!

Thanks,

Deguza

[danny burstein]

[lots snipped]

Not as true with (most) mini splits as it was in traditional units.

The vast majority of these are auto-adjusting "inverter" units, which ramp up and down in BTU capacity depending on coolng need.

So, for a made up example, if the ambient temperature is 75 degrees and you're looking for 70, a conventional unit might cycle "on" for one minute, then off for four, then on and off... with big "ooomps"as it turns on,lights dimming,temperature shifts, etc.

If it's 100 degrees on the other hand, it'll be "on" for 4.5 minutes, thenoff for 30 seconds, etc.

The newer, inverter, units, will turn "on"and start at, say, 2,000 BTUs/hr and see if that's enough to bring the temperature down. If it's not, then the unit will ramp up to 4,000, then 7, then 12,000 (a "ton"), and etc...

So its duty cycle will wind up being, say, 4 minutes at a lower output, then off for one, etc.

NOTE: THere are finally a handful of window units with this inverter/adjustable technology. I picked up one of the first three years ago, a Lucky Golstar model, their 14,000 BTU "LW1522IVSM". (note the ID number suggests it's 15,000).

It's terrific!

In the past two years Midea and some others have also started marketing similar ones.

Very highly recommended.