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how much inverting power would you need to run your whole house 100% of the time

1201 said:
but i'm not convinced my HVAC units can maintain 70 degrees.
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Bedrooms stay below 70, with outside >95. Kitchen and dining area has lot of south and west glass, struggle to keep 74-76 on hot days unless wife shuts blinds before the heat gets a head start.
 
MajicDiver said:
Bedrooms stay below 70, with outside >95. Kitchen and dining area has lot of south and west glass, struggle to keep 74-76 on hot days unless wife shuts blinds before the heat gets a head start.
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That's one thing I love about mini splits throughout the house.

Computer room stays 72
Bedroom stays 65
Parlor stays 73
Kitchen stays 75
Livingroom 1 stays 73
Livingroom 2 stays 75
etc

Upstairs doesn't have mini splits yet and ranges from 92 right now to 110 at times :)

I love being able to tailor the temps to the area.
 
Quattrohead said:
1 disadvantage of mini splits is that you are not moving air around the whole house, infrequently used rooms could become stale.
We have central air and a mini split for the bedroom.
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True. That is also one of the reasons why they are good at what they do, they aren't cooling an entire house when you only want to cool one room. Maybe zoned systems with ducts will become more popular in the future.. those would be easy to simply run the fan to distribute air around on a cycle if needed.
 
cs1234 said:
True. That is also one of the reasons why they are good at what they do, they aren't cooling an entire house when you only want to cool one room. Maybe zoned systems with ducts will become more popular in the future.. those would be easy to simply run the fan to distribute air around on a cycle if needed.
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We have experimented with running the fan/blower on our old ducted system to distribute the cool air, but it just pumps heat in from the ductwork in attic and heats whole house up. We have several large rooms with high ceilings and have installed modern 72” ceiling fans in them, they draw almost no power and move air around well at low speeds, ours run 24/7 on lowest speed.
 
Crowz said:
One thing I never see mentioned on here that is an alternative to air conditioning (I personally worship my ac units every night so its against my religion personally) are attic fans. My grandparents house for instance has one. Its amazing how well it actually cools the house at night. After the sun has been down for an hour or at least right before bed time my grandfather would flip the thing on and this giant metal louvered panel in the ceiling at the center of the house would open and it would draw a ton of air up into the ceiling there forcing air into any open window in the house. The air coming in felt a bunch cooler than the outside temperature too. I'm sure it uses a fair amount of power moving the massive fan in there but it can't be as bad as the central air running or window units.

Just thought I would mention it since I hadn't seen it talked about on here. Thing really does work.
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Not here in the summer... Actualy just opening a window for a cross-draft at night in areas / times when the nights are cool is wonderful!
 
Yes. Just need the outside temp to be lower than the inside temp. Add "water wall" at an intake area (window/door) and you have a "swamp cooler." That can cool incoming air by 30F. i.e. 100F outside the "water wall," 70F on the inside of the "water wall." Being in a low humidity area helps.
 
Crowz said:
Just thought I would mention it since I hadn't seen it talked about on here. Thing really does work.
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If “really does work” means it moves a lot of air, yes. But, to tell a story of living with them, I grew up in the Mississippi delta about 50 miles south of Memphis - almost in the middle of nowhere. Dad had new house built in 1972, no air conditioning whatsoever, only a very high volume attic fan. Our parents didn’t get a window unit until mid 1980’s after I’d been gone several years and then got central air in late 90’s.
The house had zero shade but we planted trees that do good shade now and about 15/20 years later.
If anyone understands Mississippi delta summers, it’s endless heat and humidity- 8-9 months a year a attic fan is great - but late June thru mid September is pretty much miserable at night - you never really “get used to” sleeping in that kind of heat and humidity, you live thru it, and if you spend a lifetime living in those conditions it has profound health effects. You can be tough enough to endure it until in your middle ages but after that it will put you in the grave quickly- just the impact of decades of poor sleep for months at a time leads to many physical and mental health issues - IMO it’s a very under studied issue. Not too much different than what a lot of military folks endure and people who work rotating shifts - and I’ve done both and know from experience. But, it’s why almost everyone has air conditioning in the south now, it really is a necessity if you are going to live a long and healthy life in the south. The key is being cool wherever you are going to sleep.
 
ThaiTaffy said:
I'm not confused I use 20kwh a day and a peak of 4kw give or take in an all electric home but on the other hand a freezing cold winter here is 65°f that's when my wife and every other local starts to resemble an Eskimo, so any power hungry heating is non existent here, even cars/trucks don't have heating just a blue AC knob.
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Ya I used to use 7-11 kwh a day when I lived in Puerto Rico...
 
MajicDiver said:
If “really does work” means it moves a lot of air, yes. But, to tell a story of living with them, I grew up in the Mississippi delta about 50 miles south of Memphis - almost in the middle of nowhere. Dad had new house built in 1972, no air conditioning whatsoever, only a very high volume attic fan. Our parents didn’t get a window unit until mid 1980’s after I’d been gone several years and then got central air in late 90’s.
The house had zero shade but we planted trees that do good shade now and about 15/20 years later.
If anyone understands Mississippi delta summers, it’s endless heat and humidity- 8-9 months a year a attic fan is great - but late June thru mid September is pretty much miserable at night - you never really “get used to” sleeping in that kind of heat and humidity, you live thru it, and if you spend a lifetime living in those conditions it has profound health effects. You can be tough enough to endure it until in your middle ages but after that it will put you in the grave quickly- just the impact of decades of poor sleep for months at a time leads to many physical and mental health issues - IMO it’s a very under studied issue. Not too much different than what a lot of military folks endure and people who work rotating shifts - and I’ve done both and know from experience. But, it’s why almost everyone has air conditioning in the south now, it really is a necessity if you are going to live a long and healthy life in the south. The key is being cool wherever you are going to sleep.
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I wonder if that's why people who grew up in that era in the south generally have a shorter life expectancy than the rest of the country
 
1201 said:
I wonder if that's why people who grew up in that era in the south generally have a shorter life expectancy than the rest of the country
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I suspect it’s a combination of things but heat might very well be a contributing factor.
 
1201 said:
I wonder if that's why people who grew up in that era in the south generally have a shorter life expectancy than the rest of the country
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Yes, that and mosquitoes before DDT. But in my observation it’s just people 70ish and older, and of course the older generations who long since passed but I can remember. They were generally thin and tuff but bodies broken down and were wore out. The younger generations have issues with obesity, lack of exercise and all the issues that come with that - for the relatively small percentage who stay in shape life can be no comparison to previous generations. I know a surprising number guys in their late 70’s and early 80’s who can run 3 miles and even more at faster than 9 minutes per mile. A generation ago those types of guys did not exist in the south, they weren’t over weight, but they were broken down.
 
1201 said:
just curious what everyone's peak demand is and how much it would take to be completely on inverter.
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Earlier this month:

fVxX3uS.png


That's with relatively modest household load (yellow). Add ducted aircon, an oven or two (we have two dwellings), and a stove top or two and it can add up real fast if we are not careful. The above is me taking advantage of a free grid energy tariff period.

Realistically we'd probably need 20+ kW if attempting to be off-grid.

We barely manage with 8 kW of off-grid capacity now, and that does not cover our water heater, ducted aircon, EV charging, oven or induction stove. I do wish I had fitted the 11 kW version of off-grid inverter for just a bit more headroom. That may all become moot as we are probably going to sell up and move. Still, there will be an EV to charge, water to heat, space to cool (or heat), cooking to be done.
 
Nobodybusiness said:
I suspect it’s a combination of things but heat might very well be a contributing factor.
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Not necessarily the heat, but the lack of sleep from that heat. For example I'm fully convinced men don't live as long as women because we suffer sleep apnea at 8x the rate of women .
 
1201 said:
Not necessarily the heat, but the lack of sleep from that heat. For example I'm fully convinced men don't live as long as women because we suffer sleep apnea at 8x the rate of women .
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I wasn’t aware of that statistic but now that I think about it, definitely appears true.

I have sleep apnea but it’s not Obstructive Sleep apnea.
It’s Central Apnea.

Brain just forgets to breath.
I just contribute it to being old as crap.
No idea what the underlying cause is..

Definitely causes lack of REM sleep.
 
We get Alzheimer's disease at higher rates as well, right? It seems as though that would have to be influenced by bad sleep as well.

EDIT Wow, I was wrong.. women twice as high of a rate..
EDIT again.. ok, because of them living longer.. duh.. I figured as much.
EDIT and then they say it's not because of them living longer, they just get it at higher rates.. but not other forms of dementia.

I need some sleep, trying to read medical crud on my sleep deprived brain is a bad idea. :p
 
Nobodybusiness said:
I wasn’t aware of that statistic but now that I think about it, definitely appears true.

I have sleep apnea but it’s not Obstructive Sleep apnea.
It’s Central Apnea.

Brain just forgets to breath.
I just contribute it to being old as crap.
No idea what the underlying cause is..

Definitely causes lack of REM sleep.
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Will a CPAP fix central apnea? (Hijacking my own thread lol 🤣)
 
1201 said:
Will a CPAP fix central apnea? (Hijacking my own thread lol 🤣)
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Yes. They have a protocol for Central Apnea.

CPAP is a protocol not necessarily the machine.

CPAP Protocol is continuous positive airway pressure.
BIPAP is Bilevel positive airway pressure.
ASV is Adaptive Support Ventilation

ASV is the protocol for Central apnea but it has a 33% increase risk in Cardiovascular death so I elected not to do it.
 
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