Installing DIY Off-Grid AIR CONDITIONING

hey and welcome back to ambition strikes it's hard for me to believe that just about two years ago coordinator were setting foot on this property for the first time and there was nothing here we bought it we cleared the land we built this shop we got our infrastructure set up and then just six months ago we finally got the concrete poured in the downstairs of the shop we got the walls finished up we got the wiring done and we're getting really close to having a fully functional workshop and I'm really excited for some awesome projects this summer starting today today we're going to hugely level up the interior of the shop and make things a lot more comfortable today we're going to be installing the Mr Cool 36000 BTU DIY mini split air conditioner and heat pump heater right here in the workshop which means that by the end of the day we should have both heat and air conditioning that's completely off-grid and solar powered so let's get to it so this is the back wall of the shop and the plan is to put the air handler unit right up here on the wall and then run the line set through the wall outside and down to the outside unit that'll be in the back corner over there cool okay do you want to follow the installation and owner's manual or do you want to follow the quick start setup guide I I prefer neither but if we're going to choose one let's go with the quick it's uh it's only four four pages long okay I think I can handle that and then we're gonna have air conditioning step one step two install it [Music] Mr cool I'm gonna start calling you that since this is a pole barn there aren't actually any studs to attach this bracket to so I added these two by fours up here to our mezzanine and that's going to give us a nice secure place to mount the inside unit and with the layout of the inside unit determined it's time to dribble [Music] but there's a gap in the insulation right here so I'm not even going to have to like right between two pieces look at that you can finish it through you planned it I planned that because you're Mr Cool this is gonna let me drill all the way through the wall and poke on the outside with a little tiny hole and then follow the other direction now let's head outside and finish the hole look at you that's pretty cool very cool all right we actually have a confession to make this is not our first time installing a Mr Cool Air Conditioner over the summer when I first got pregnant I had really bad morning sickness and we had a heat wave and I was just miserable and so Riley actually installed this one day for me this is a smaller unit that's just powering our apartment this unit was not in DIY version so it actually did take Riley a couple days to install it so I'm looking forward to seeing how quickly we can get this DIY one installed we're looking for a little tiny hole [Music] hi it's not on a rib look at that that's why they call me Mr Cool there we go look at that foreign [Music] thank you this is not quite going as planned I think that if there was a not pregnant me or two Riley's then one person could just hold it and the other could fish it in but I'm having a hard time balancing on a ladder so I think we made a new plan where Riley's just gonna do everything here we go it's like a seat belt okay now let's see if we can Wrangle those lines into place thank you Riley's working from the outside now to get the lines pulled through it is very frustrating being this pregnant not being able to do the things they used to be able to do and not have as much energy and not be as strong but I also know that it won't last forever all right got the two lines started and now I just need to get them there we go two lines are through the power chords Through all we have left is the condensate line and the inside unit will be done boom inside done I've been replaced by ratchet straps no you'll never be replaced look at that So Courtney and I are completely off-grade here on this property we don't have an electrical connection to a power company we make all our own power right here on site using our 10 000 watts of solar panels we have 60 000 Watt hours of battery capacity and 20 000 watts of inverter capacity if you'd like to learn more about that system we'll put some links to those videos in the description below but that means that this mini split air conditioner and heat pump heater is completely off-grid and solar powered Mr Cool has sizes and configurations available for all sorts of spaces this unit here is rated for up to 1500 square feet which should make it about perfect for heating and cooling our 1200 square foot shop if you'd like to learn more about Mr Cool products head to the link in the description down below this unit is both the compressor and the condenser it's meant to be installed outside there are a few ways you can mount this you can either put it on a concrete slab on the ground or they make wall brackets for it because we live in a climate where it snows we're going to mount it up on the wall so it's above the level of the snow but I didn't order brackets in time for this installation so we're gonna have to make some ourselves you just wanted to use the welder every project needs the welder and then we'll put like a little angled brace going down like this we're gonna need two of these so there'll be another one I think you should make the angled brace with spider web that would look pretty awesome are we gonna do that [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign here's a unique one for metal projects on this channel paint exactly all of the Steeler projects we've been doing have been sort of architectural things on the outside of the building and we don't want to paint them because we like the patina look but in this case on an air conditioner install I think rust would look bad so we're going to give this thing a layer of paint there are actually lots of high quality wall mount brackets that we could get for this air conditioner to mount it to the wall but I neglected to order one in time and we wanted to get this project done so sometimes there's just something to be said for making our own parts and making progress on the project all in I think that took me about 30 minutes so really not too bad well I know that we said we were going to try to get this install done in a day but we're going to let this paint dry we've got an appointment in town and we'll see it tomorrow morning didn't mean to do that foreign ly this is going to kind of block the door access to the dog run so I think we're gonna just flip the dog run panel around so that the door is over here and then it won't be in the way anymore I really like the idea of having these units on the back of the building because they're protected they're going to get a lot less Dusty and then also we don't have any snow shed over here [Music] that is a beefy bracket ended up a little extreme [Music] and hopefully these holds the right distance apart 26 and a half perfect we are going to work smarter not harder to put this outside unit up because it is heavy that one Riley just carried up a ladder but that's like Baby Bear Mama Bear and this is like Papa Bear this one weighs 140 pounds and if Courtney wasn't pregnant I think we carry it into place lift 70 pounds right now no no and I don't want to lift more than 70 pounds yeah I lift 70 pounds right now and hopefully I don't punch another hole in the building okay it's really nice in here I could totally take a nap right now having this skid steered with the forks has been such a game changer being able to use this thing to move heavy stuff around especially being this pregnant like I don't know what we would have done without it and this is how Riley unloaded all the mystical stuff from the bed of his truck before it would have been the excavator or before that it was me um so I don't know that I can ever go back to not owning something with forks because it's really nice okay here we go [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] my number one goal is don't drop it on Riley my number two goal is don't drop it and my number three goal is to get it in place I wish we had a machine to do this kind of straight forward a little further okay now turn a little bit tilt down come forwards okay wait there just barely he does a pregnant lady fit through that hole all right well that's as close as we're gonna get that thing to those mounting brackets so hopefully now that it's close we can shimmy it over and get it on okay now I can set it down on that bracket just a little bit precarious and if we didn't love somewhere that got so much snow I think we definitely would have done a ground Mount install and then this would have been really easy but we just don't want to have to worry about coming out here and clearing the snow out and having that other one mounted up high was really nice this winter so a little more work right now a little more stress right now but I think that it's going to be really worth it we're gonna try to get one bolt in so that it can't fall as we pivot it around cool are you good yep are you done yep look at that oh my goodness and we're in cool it's on that was easy that was still stressful but yeah but we didn't have to lift anything it's like Papa Bear a mama bear this is did you know I turned the camera on because I knew you were gonna do that I always have to give everything the like secureness test the Riley break it wiggle test it doesn't break when I test it then it's probably good so I've installed a few Mini Splits and normally I'd be dreading this next step because it involves evacuating the system and using all the professional tools but this is the DIY version and we don't have to do any of that so I think it's going to be really simple next step is to hook the evaporator up to the condenser and so those are the lines that we stuck through the wall we're gonna hook up this line set to those lines and then over here to the condenser foreign on top the small one underneath I'm just going to start by connecting the big one so here's how these work this part on this fitting is going to push in on this little valve right here once they've been connected that O-ring will make a seal super cool did you hear that yeah I heard that it uh it released to something but I don't think outside I think it's just releasing the I heard it going like through the through the line there it goes I heard it and now we do the same thing on this side all right now the line sets connected the final step is to let the refrigerant equalize in pressure so these two caps there's valves inside there that are holding the refrigerant inside the condenser when I open those valves it's going to let the whole system equalize we open this fully and we're probably going to hear refrigerant Escape oh yep there it goes oh this one got cold now we check for leaks now we check for leaks starting it's good to me all good there I think we're good all right I've got this unit wired into this 40 amp AC disconnect and it's time to power it on for the first time okay here we go does this mean it's time to see if it works fire it up I think we should probably kill this off this might be an air conditioner but it's also a heater and given the temperature I think we're going to try the heater mode first so here we go does it heat the shop power mode Heat 75 degrees oh did you hear that yep the unit outside kicked on oh my goodness you guys we're blowing hot air in the shop oh yeah oh that's really warm that still seems too easy so the way that this heater works is it's a heat pump and it basically runs like an air conditioner in Reverse so that the hot side is inside and the cold side is outside so it's absorbing heat from the external air and it works at temperatures well below freezing I think it's nuts how quiet the outdoor unit is like we're running full blast heat and fan in the shop right now and I can barely hear this thing I can't hear it inside at all and even when I come back here I can barely hear it we've got some cleanup to do there's a cover channel that we're going to put over the line set and we've got to wrap a few fittings so we're gonna get that all cleaned up stay tuned unlike traditional air conditioners or heat pump heaters this unit actually has a variable speed compressor which means that it stays on all the time and it ramps up and down depending on the temperature demands which helps to make it super efficient it also means that the load on our inverters in this off-grid application are a lot lower than if the compressor were kicking on and off and on and off so we've currently reached the set temperature and this unit is putting out heat but it's sort of working at an idle State and in this state it uses about 2000 Watts I'm monitoring the output of our inverters through the app on our off-grid system we've been using this thing in heat mode for most of the day to heat the shop but I'm mostly excited to get to work in an air-conditioned space this summer so I want to test out air conditioning all right mode 62. okay here it goes oh it's getting colder and oh yeah now it's cold like now it's really cold we have never had an air-conditioned shop in our entire lives do you remember when we used to hose each other off at the Atascadero shop yes we just put a fan in front of whatever we were working on yep we would literally spray each other down with water and then sit in front of the fan to keep cool things have changed a lot since then I am so looking forward to having an air-conditioned shop this summer it's going to make all of our projects a little more fun so with that a huge thanks to Mr Cool for sponsoring this video and we'll see you next time

Channel: Ambition Strikes

Views: 587,307

Keywords: off-grid barndominium, diy pole barn, diy truck camper, husband and wife build, off grid home build, couple builds dream home, building our off grid home, air conditioning, a/c, off grid, off-grid, mr cool, mr. cool, mrcool

Id: hXi5z99ocxQ

Length: 20min 34sec (1234 seconds)

Published: Sun May 07 2023