Ductless Heat Pump Installation

Here is a great example of a ductless heat pump installation. These home owners were looking at a $28k bid to install a ducted system in their home. They had used ceiling heat up until now. This unit has been successful in offseting most of their heating load in their 2000 sf home. It looks as good as a heating system can look, and only cost them $5k.


The covered refrigerant lines run up the wall on the outside of the home, just behind the wall unit.


After they finish their remodel a unit will also be installed on the other side of their home. That unit will control two heads, one on each floor. Total installation costs will be around $11k. No duct loses, much lower cycling loses, and a great rebate :).

The Humble Conservation Rig

Here is our humble conservation rig.







Fairly fuel efficient, classic white, with lots of room in the back for test equipment, CFL bulbs, high efficiency showerheads, and everything needed to crawl under homes in search of under-insulated spaces.

Light Bulb Side Note (then back to heating systems)

Now when you are intending to make light with electricity, instead of heat, your efficiency number is going to shift. Standard incandescent light bulbs have been creating light for us since Thomas Edison (or before if you credit those that did not file a patent). These bulbs create light from electricity by heating a wire up just like your toaster does; only they hold a different type of metal that intends to focus on the visible light spectrum instead of infrared.


While techs have created better filaments for light bulbs that last longer, and are slightly more efficient, we are still operating around 10%. Meaning that of the total amount of electricity that enters the bulb only 10% of it becomes visible light. The other 90% is emitted as heat. I am sure this does not come as a surprise as it is very easy to burn your hand when trying to switch out an incandescent bulb that had been on for a while.

(As a side note, the visible light is going to bounce around the room being absorbed by the surfaces until it is gone. When absorbed, i.e. stopped, that light will create a small amount of heat. So, one could say that a light bulb is 100% efficient at creating heat, because at the end of the day every watt of electricity that enters the bulb eventually becomes heat.)


While the efficiency of incandescents may get slightly better over the next few years it is highly unlikely that they will get anywhere near the efficiency of a compact fluorescent lamp (CFL). A CFL, just as a standard fluorescent, creates a ultraviolet light stream thru the center of the tube. I had the chance to see one a few weeks ago at a light show, and it looks exactly like a Star Wars light saber.


Generally speaking we do not see this portion of the light as it is hidden behind the white phosphor coating on the inside of the glass surface. As the ultraviolet light strikes the phosphors it excites them and they emit visible light. As a team these two create light 75% more efficiently than an incandescent, since less electricity is released as heat.

(Again, the light will bounce around the room until it becomes heat as well, but if you ever try to remove a CFL that has been on for a while you will find that they do not create nearly as much heat.)

And since the goal is to create visible light, these are a clear winner. Add to that that they have a lifespan 10x the lifespan of an incandescent and the fact that they cost more upfront is no longer an issue.

Giant Toaster in the Sky

I am frequently asked: "Is my baseboard/cadet/ceiling heat efficient?" In short, Yes. They are all essentialy giant toasters with different bells and whistles.

Electric heat, by its nature is 'efficient'. For every 1 watt of electricity it pulls out of the socket it creates exactely 1 watt of heat. That makes these units 100% efficient. Every single one of them. It does not matter if the Amish made them in the sticks of North Carolina, or whether Paul Harvey tells you one particular brand makes him happy, or whatever new name/approach a fancy marketer made up to sell their product. Every single one of these units is 100% efficient. Yes, every one.

The 50%+ savings frequently marketed by some of these units requries that you turn off your main heating system and only use this unit in the room that you are currently in, while the rest of your home is not heated (check the fine print for these details). If you do that there certainly could be some savings, but by its nature that electric heating box is 100% efficient just like your electric furnace (I may talk about duct systems some time in the future, but for now lets just assume that they carry all the heat into your house).

This is the limit of physics people, you just cannot make heat from nothing, and since you are trying to make heat there are no loses. It does not matter if they call it "infared-heat", or "liquid-heat", or "your-kids-will-now-listen-to-you-be-happy-and-quiet-Heat". Electric heat is electric heat. You are likely to see the same 'savings' if you buy a $15 space heater at Walmart, or you could see even more savings if you bought an electric blanket and turned all your heat off.

I do realize that often what people mean to ask is which option is cheaper, and what is going to make me more comfortable. Those are much harder questions to answer.

Heat Pumps Are Where It Is At

And ductless heat pumps are the coolest thing since before sliced bread.

All the efficiencies of a top shelf heat pump without all the duct loses and sky-high install prices. We are starting to market them as a retrofit option for homes with baseboard/ceiling heat. One of these units in the primary living area can serve most of the home with the most efficient heat available at 1/3 the cost of a ducted system.

Anyway way too much writing and not enough pictures:

See mrslim.com or Fujitsu for more information & pics.

Transpartisan Alliance

Just joined these guys :LINK:.

I posted about Joseph McCormic back in October 2006 and am excited to see something else happening. I am still not convinced that it is in my families/my communities best interest that I dive into national politics, but I do want to keep my ear to the rails, if you will.

Tears of Joy

When Brielle and I were married we were challenged to bring one another to "tears of joy" on a daily basis. While I don't not believe this is exactely what he had in mind I have been thinking about it lately. Maybe this one is a little more on spot:

Giant Pumkins! Ever Been?

Fall is here. This was 1:30 PM in the afternoon. First day we have seen this season with a not-so-slight chill in the air.




That's right folks, giant pumpkins. The fellow in the black tee is Dave Hancock a co-worker of mine. That beautiful gord on the scale was grown in his backyard.




Note the forklift.



The winners at this Weigh-Off were the bohemouths to the left and right of the scale. One of these weighed in at over 1300 lbs. Word on the street is that the world record is currently: Joe Jutras from North Scituate, Rhode Island. He brought a 1689 pound pumpkin to the Topsfield Fair GPC weigh-off in Topsfield, Ma. on September 29, 2007. If history holds true that will be beaten sometime this year.



A classic western showdown: goat style.



Brielle informed me that owning goats is now in our 5 year plan.

In the World of Fiber Optics

So I learned this week that all the fiber optic traffic for the entire city goes thru the room two doors down from my office. A fiber optic signal travels at 90 some % of the speed of light in at least 60 different colors. That is either one amazing light show, or enough information to choke a librarian. For you techno geeks this means that if I had a computer fast enough to receive the information, I could download files at a few gigabits per second. Or in other words it would take less than a minute to download all 3 Lord of the Rings movies, extended versions.

This is merely an example: I do not condone pirating movies. Our national laws deems such actions as illegal, and rightfully so. Besides with sites like THIS what else do you need?