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Lowest low ambient operating temp for 1 ton mini-split.
- Thread starter Shmavis
- Start date
You can buy mini's with ambient switches.
But where I live, sometimes winters can get real cold.
Ambient switch or not, my mini can and will freeze up and not work.
What I was forced to do was run an intake fan from outside on a cooling thermostat.
Just make sure to have an exhaust vent in the room too to avoid positive pressure.
Otherwise the smell will be pushing thru any crack in the grow.
It save a shit ton of money on cooling. Make sure to use insulated ducting to avoid condensate and water everywhere.
But where I live, sometimes winters can get real cold.
Ambient switch or not, my mini can and will freeze up and not work.
What I was forced to do was run an intake fan from outside on a cooling thermostat.
Just make sure to have an exhaust vent in the room too to avoid positive pressure.
Otherwise the smell will be pushing thru any crack in the grow.
It save a shit ton of money on cooling. Make sure to use insulated ducting to avoid condensate and water everywhere.
Shmavis
Being-in-the-world
That IS super brutal. 6 tons sounds like a good sized operation. Best of luck with your plan.
Nooooo... Ugh!
Thanks Frank for sharing your experience. I guess if I go the route of a mini I may as well set the room up to be as fail-safe as possible. Even though it goes against the simplifying I was going for. Maybe in the end it'll make more sense to run year-round by doing as you suggest and using cold outside air during the dead of winter and using the mini during the other seasons...
biggreg
Member
The grow we are building is only 8 x 24 but we are designing it with the ability to handle worst case conditions ( 100f ambient, 5 gallons/day per 1000w dehumidification, the dehueys and co2 gen going full blast during a hot day and all the misc. loads together). With modern variable inverter mini-splits, oversizing isnt that much of an issue.
Your other option would be to have the condenser inside somewhere separate from the cooled area if you had the room to pull it off, I've seen that before too.
mangotango
New member
Daikin is the way to go IMO
Daikin is the way to go IMO
I have dealt with every problem that you are facing. I recently, in Oct, converted to Daikin heat pump Mini's for all of rooms. I am not going to write my long, long process of what i had to deal with, unless you throughly want to know, which you should PM then. But in short, what you want are Daikin Sky Airs. They are the industrial version that are used in server rooms and such. They are only single zoned units but have a lower operating temp than any of the other models (daikin anyway). The sky airs are what those low ambient kits were first designed for, from talking with so many individuals. They also make these "base heaters" that you can buy and install to basically heat it up to operating temps when temps drop to the extremes.
I am in Montana so had to deal with those types of temps for about 3-4 weeks this past winter. There are many options which you can go if you do not have the funds for those sky airs though. For example in all of the models, or at least most of the newer ones, they are designed with switches on the circuit board which you just flick, this will drop the operating temp down to zero. Make sure though that it is a switch, some come with a bar little connection that you have to clip, which obviously you cannot fix. Just remember when you do flick that switch, or clip it, that the indoor unit gets stuck point as high as it can go and you cannot adjust that once its switched.
I do have the low ambient kits on mine but they do nothing when temps get low, as the main reason they shut off is because the thermometer that sticks out the back top left of the unit tells it to shut off (for safe guard reasons). You can actually trick it to stay on by just holding it for a few minutes, which is how i diagnosed mine.
Needless to say, I wasn't doing all the working on my units. It just so happened that my best friend worked at a HVAC company for years and years so he hooked it up with his coworkers who did it all as a side job. They get expensive but the amount I have saved after switching all my rooms from regular AC's to minis and switching to all nano de's was truly remarkable. Cant really verify any other companies as I have only ever bought and used daikins. I will be investigating geothermal for my new warehouse that I am building, if that falls through though, I will definitely 100% get daikin sky airs for all my rooms, will be very very costly for the initial costs, but imo nothing else beats it. It shall be interesting either way. Anyway i am just being a high ass and rambling now, but if you have any questions just let me know. Stay high, stay classy and good luck!
Daikin is the way to go IMO
I have dealt with every problem that you are facing. I recently, in Oct, converted to Daikin heat pump Mini's for all of rooms. I am not going to write my long, long process of what i had to deal with, unless you throughly want to know, which you should PM then. But in short, what you want are Daikin Sky Airs. They are the industrial version that are used in server rooms and such. They are only single zoned units but have a lower operating temp than any of the other models (daikin anyway). The sky airs are what those low ambient kits were first designed for, from talking with so many individuals. They also make these "base heaters" that you can buy and install to basically heat it up to operating temps when temps drop to the extremes.
I am in Montana so had to deal with those types of temps for about 3-4 weeks this past winter. There are many options which you can go if you do not have the funds for those sky airs though. For example in all of the models, or at least most of the newer ones, they are designed with switches on the circuit board which you just flick, this will drop the operating temp down to zero. Make sure though that it is a switch, some come with a bar little connection that you have to clip, which obviously you cannot fix. Just remember when you do flick that switch, or clip it, that the indoor unit gets stuck point as high as it can go and you cannot adjust that once its switched.
I do have the low ambient kits on mine but they do nothing when temps get low, as the main reason they shut off is because the thermometer that sticks out the back top left of the unit tells it to shut off (for safe guard reasons). You can actually trick it to stay on by just holding it for a few minutes, which is how i diagnosed mine.
Needless to say, I wasn't doing all the working on my units. It just so happened that my best friend worked at a HVAC company for years and years so he hooked it up with his coworkers who did it all as a side job. They get expensive but the amount I have saved after switching all my rooms from regular AC's to minis and switching to all nano de's was truly remarkable. Cant really verify any other companies as I have only ever bought and used daikins. I will be investigating geothermal for my new warehouse that I am building, if that falls through though, I will definitely 100% get daikin sky airs for all my rooms, will be very very costly for the initial costs, but imo nothing else beats it. It shall be interesting either way. Anyway i am just being a high ass and rambling now, but if you have any questions just let me know. Stay high, stay classy and good luck!
Shmavis
Being-in-the-world
Thanks mangotango and biggreg.
It doesn’t appear that Daikin offers Sky Air in less than 18,000 BTUs. I found the Mitsu P-Series still available in 12,000 BTU, just as a different model number. So there are options, but they’re just at a much higher price point than I’m willing to spend at this time. Basically $3000 for the Mitsu.
I was allowing a budget of $3500 for the whole project... Installing a mini is on hold for now. I can’t justify installing a model in my price range when there’s a possibility that it may not function in the dead of winter. Zero degree operating temperature wouldn’t provide enough peace of mind, since it can regularly get colder here. So if I do install a mini it will be one with -40 capability.
I may end up doing a mini next spring, depending on how some other room modifications that are taking place end up panning out. (not to mention time to save more money).
Thanks again, really appreciate the leads!
It doesn’t appear that Daikin offers Sky Air in less than 18,000 BTUs. I found the Mitsu P-Series still available in 12,000 BTU, just as a different model number. So there are options, but they’re just at a much higher price point than I’m willing to spend at this time. Basically $3000 for the Mitsu.
I was allowing a budget of $3500 for the whole project... Installing a mini is on hold for now. I can’t justify installing a model in my price range when there’s a possibility that it may not function in the dead of winter. Zero degree operating temperature wouldn’t provide enough peace of mind, since it can regularly get colder here. So if I do install a mini it will be one with -40 capability.
I may end up doing a mini next spring, depending on how some other room modifications that are taking place end up panning out. (not to mention time to save more money).
Thanks again, really appreciate the leads!
