Who has first hand knowledge of a 120v mini split watt hours in a 24 hour day

[nc73]

I run a 9000 BTU Senville in my 7 x 14 cargo trailer with 1" (R5) insulation all around (floor, ceiling, walls, nooks/crannies) and no windows.

It uses 5-7kwh/24hrs for mid temps - 40F low 90F hi ambient - to maintain 75F inside.
At 25F low ambient or 100+F ambient, to keep 75F inside, power is in the 15kwh range.
At 25F low ambient to keep 60F inside, power was back down to 5-7kwh.

As said above, there are sooo many variables. INSULATION is a key factor, R5 is not that good, and the whole 'silver/radiant/reflect thing' didn't seem to do anything.

Sealing is most important. You can insulate all you want but if you don't seal any holes it is almost useless. Spray foamed my house and now I only use the ac for an hour or 2 max in the summer.

 

[Bluedog225]

I read post number 4. Can anyone dumb it down for me? ELI5?

 

[Zapper77]

You must have not seen post number four in this thread. 120V mini split on inverter may be false economy.

I did and it was spot on. Was referring to people posting energy consumption but excluding PF results.

 

[Zapper77]

I read post number 4. Can anyone dumb it down for me? ELI5?

Try this link. It explains PF correction. https://www.electronicdesign.com/po...power-factor-correction-justified-in-the-home

 

[Zapper77]

I read post number 4. Can anyone dumb it down for me? ELI5?

My HVAC blower motor run capacitor maybe failing. See the pf is 0.61 . In English that means my blower is pulling in 6.2 amps when it should only be using 4.5 amps.

 

[turbo6bar]

My HVAC blower motor run capacitor maybe failing. See the pf is 0.61 . In English that means my blower is pulling in 6.2 amps when it should only be using 4.5 amps.

I like that your wattmater is showing PF. Very cool.

 

[Vigo]

I actually don't remember if the ~$15 power meter i bought from Amazon recently shows PF or not, but i know the ~$35 'automatic vacuum switch' I bought 6+months ago does. I actually bought that as a power meter and have YET to use its actual switching/delay functions at all. ? But i figured it might be useful to stick it somewhere as a sort of interlock between 2 120v devices, but i guess all my stuff works well enough that i longer care to flesh out that idea.

Anyway, some of em do show PF, just gotta look.

I am going to buy a mini split in the next couple of months here and while i planned to buy 230v anyway, i didn't know about the PF factor (factor factor) and so im glad i read that (RCinFLA dropping knowledge again!). In my case I'm just trying to minimize what is run through my autotransformer (w/Growatts) and minimize wire costs for the new circuits i'll install for them. With that new info added i will make it my policy while shopping to totally ignore any and all 120v mini splits.

I do have a 120v Midea inverter window unit and i did run it through the meter that shows PF, but i can't recall what it said.. might retest that!

 

[Stiffmeister]

I have Carrier 18k BTU minisplits with a SEER around 20 (I'd have to check Costco). These use about 1800 watts at full power max fan. I don't care what the inverter/low power mode is because it may kick to high power (max 7200 watt inverter). Did the best I can insulating a concrete block house but Mexican windows are a total joke. I run two to three mini-splits full power all day to cool off the items and concrete in the house. Being completely off grid, all three AC's are off by 6pm because I'm on battery power. I can't believe you all can get mini-splits over 20 SEER (I usually bring everything from California) and I may even look into replacing these brand new units.

 

[RCinFLA]

Try this link. It explains PF correction. https://www.electronicdesign.com/po...power-factor-correction-justified-in-the-home

The punch line is most U.S. utilities do not presently charge residential customers for poor power factor, therefore why bother about it.

When you sum up all the air conditioners running in a given area it is a sizable impact to the utilities for extra power loss in grid transformers and cable losses.

California has started to charge residential by apparent power instead of just real power. All of the new smart meters have the ability to measure VA so it is just a matter of time before every area will get charged by VA usage, you will then pay for poor power factor appliances. Utilities could possibly make the change without saying anything about it, other than you will see your electric bill creep up a bit.

Presently with inflation taking center stage for prices going up and fall season (less air conditioning) approaching, it would be an excellent time for utilities to make the change to charge for kVAh's. All it takes is flip of their computer billing computation and a subtle little change in the printing of your bill from "kWh usage" to "kVAh usage" to keep things legal.