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how do you install a solar air conditioner from signature solar today I'm going to show you how to install this solar air conditioner or this duckass mini split that can be powered off of solar panels I've got a set of solar panels I'm going to be hooking those up to the mini split after we install it you're watching HVAC tips for homeowners technicians I'm Tad let's get started first where are we going to install the mini split or solar powered air conditioner this is my shed I just put in this wall and this is where I'm going to mount the wall mount air handler for that mini split these are the solar panels that I got from signature solar and they're 395 watt panels they are huge compared to those 100 watt panels that I have on my solar tracker I'm going to give you a discount you can use uh by the end of the video that way you can get a percentage off of your order I definitely recommend going to Signature solar if you need a kit a bundle or you need a mini split it's solar power so mounting the wall mount air handler here I've got a PV isolator or disconnect for that mini split I've got some 10 PV wire let's go ahead and unbox that mini split and then we'll see what's inside now that we've got everything unboxed we can see what we have we've got the indoor unit the outdoor unit and this is an eg4 Electronics duckass mini split this is a single zone so we got one indoor and one outdoor unit that connect together and this 12,000 BTU or one ton minisplit system can heat and cool up to 600 square ft cable this is what powers the indoor unit and this cable connects from the outdoor unit to the indoor unit and I like the fact that they went ahead and they put the ring terminals on there then we've got our drain pipe and we got about around 10t of drain pipe we've got our wireless remote controller this is what we use to control the mini split system and then we've got around 15 ft of line sets and these have the quick connectors on them and they're already insulated so we've got our smaller and larger piping then we've got a mounting guide for the indoor air handler so this is what you can use as a template to be able to mount this unit and then they've got a hole right here or a template a drawing for the hole for where the line sets would exit or go out the exterior and then connect to the outdoor unit we got a little bit of tape uh for weather protection we've got a bag here with a couple MC E4 connectors uh looks like a mounting bracket for the wireless controller a wall sleeve and then here is our installation manual this is super important photov voltaic DC AC split system air conditioner instulation owner and manuals so this is you need to definitely read this before you begin now we're going to mount the indoor unit this is the indoor wallmount air handler maybe weighs around 20 lbs so it's pretty light first thing we're going to do is take that Phillip screw out of the wall mount air handler so that we can take that mounting bracket off and you can see mounting bracket's right here make sure you know drain is on this side line sets are on this side that's not the way I want it because when I mount this I'm going to bend my line sets out this way and I'm going to push my line sets out the hole I don't want to have another hole over here for my drain so I'm going to swap the drain tube from this side of the wall mount air handler to this side it's very easy to do that and I'm going to show you how to do that before we begin so we'll take the mounting bracket and we'll figure out where we want that wall mount air handler to be located one thing I keep in mind when I mount a wall mount air handler like this one is I know which side my line sets are going to be on and then I want to make sure that if I'm going to have to drill a hole right here beside the unit down towards the bottom of the wallmount bracket I want to make sure I'm not going to go through a stud so you may want to get a stud finder for me I know my stud's right here and I want about 5 in above the air handler and that's for proper air flow because the return for this is on top and if I don't have if I have no room above my unit say we mounted it here which you can't mount it at an angle like that but say we had no room then we would have uh improper air flow we wouldn't have any air because you have to have return to have Supply and I'll explain that a little more as the video goes so I'm thinking number one I want to make sure I'm mounting it in a in a solid location where it's going to hit a stud or a joist and I know there's a stud here I know there's a stud here so I'm thinking I'm probably going to mount it right here I don't mind it being off set I would like for it to be centered but I have an obstruction right here and since I have an obstruction I don't want to obstruct the air that's going to be coming out of this thing through the supply so I'm thinking somewhere right here so what do I want to do first I want to take a tape measure I want to measure and make sure I have enough room above my unit I like to have 5 in 10 in is great I want to make sure I can get to the filter to maintenance it and then I'm going to take and put a screw in it to hold it all right inside the package where the installation manual was you'll find screws for mounting the wall mount air handler we're not going to use those screws I like these uh star bit decking wood screws just my preference so I'm going to take and mount this right here [Music] and once I put one screw in there then I'm going to get my level and put my level on here and once I know which side my drain's going to be on that's the side I need to angle uh the unit towards that way I have proper drainage we don't have water staying inside the pan so I'll take a look at my level and let's put it in the middle and then you can see right there is level and I'm going to go up towards the right just a little bit so yeah that's where I will screw it in now let's put the rest of the screws in here I'm going to put about five screws in this mount [Music] bracket one at the bottom hook one at the top on each side and then one in the middle all right there's our bracket on the wall when you get your mounting bracket secured on the wall where you want it then you can take and put the indoor wall mount air handler on that bracket and the way you put it on the bracket is very simple you see the hooks at the top all right there are spots on the air handler that go over those hooks this area and this area so what you do is you just take put it up here like this and then you can see how it looks you can put the level back on it how's it look with the level to me stepping back looks pretty good now we can move our drain and then we can get ready to cut a hole in the wall and I'll show you what tool I'm going to use to do that let's move the drain line so we're going to come in here with the needlenose pliers we're going to take this little rubber piece out of the other drain pipe location for this indoor wallmount air handler then we're going to come over here and you can see there's a little hook right here you want to turn this and then take it out because you don't want to pull it because you're going to bend this hook this is what keeps that drain pipe or the drain hose connected to that uh pipe connection so over here we take and put this in like this and then once we get it all the way in there then we turn it and that's what secures it and then this piece right here we're going to put this in the location where that drain pipe hose was and to put it all the way in there we need to get maybe a Phillips screwdriver so we can press that in I'm going to use the other end of this bit that's not sharp to push this piece in here that way it's secured yep it's secured quite tough all right there we go now the drain and the line sets will both come out on the right hand side of the wallmount air handler and now I can go ahead and drill my hole to make our hole through the wall we're going to be using a hole saw kit this is what I use for most of my mini split installs for the location of the hole you can hold the template back up here if you want if you use the template to install the mounting bracket that means you probably use this to mark your hole uh before you ever did your bracket because you can take this out you can cut this out and then just mark it for me the way I've always done this is I have just like this and then I've used a pencil or a pen usually a pencil that way you don't have a mark on somebody's wall and then what I've done is I've just marked the bottom of the unit right the bottom of the unit and then the side of the unit so I know where the bottom is and I'm going to drill right up above that and I'm not going to go past the right Mark so I'll show you that so take this bracket or take the wallmount air hander back off there's my bottom Mark there's my right hand Mark and what I'll do is I'll just take my hole saw right here like this and then I'll just put a hole right here oh and there's our hole all the way through look at that what size hole saw should you use for the template it looks like it's 2 and 1/2 in diameter I used a 3 in you can use a 2 and 1/2 and that'll be plenty of room for you to actually fit your line sets the cable connecting the indoor and outdoor unit and the drain pipe now you can use the wall sleeve to make sure that you have a barrier in between those line sets and the cable and the material of your wall that way you don't damage uh any of the insulation on the line sets I'm using some PVC as a sleeve so I'll take that 3-in PVC and look fits perfectly now I'm going to be making this mini split job a lot easier for myself using the mighty bracket this is an installation support tool I'm going to unbox this and show you how this works this is a little carrying case for the mighty bracket and this is a great tool if you're doing a mini split install by yourself this is made by Rector seal and you can see we've got two pieces here right and what we're going to do is we're going to take and we're going to put these hooks up here through the bottom lower part of our bracket and then it's going to just set there on the wall like this see now now I'm going to bend my line sets out and you can actually just tape these you can tape this you can wire tie this that's what I like to do to make sure they stay together for when I'm pushing them through but now I can take and of course start feeding it through but while I'm feeding it the mighty bracket is holding it it just makes it so much easier looks like my wall sleeve is going to move so I'm going to go outside and push my wall sleeve on but look at this this is going to make it so much easier for me because the part where you have a little bit of issues is where you're trying to hold the unit and push the line sets through the wall this makes it so much easier so if you're looking to make your job easier and you're installing a mini split go check out the mighty bracket made by Rector seal here's where the line sets come through the wall I fixed the wall sleeve so now we can finish putting pushing the line sets through and mounting that wall mount air handler and then we've got a place for our outdoor unit I'm not going to mount it on the side of the building because of the way the ribbed metal runs I'm going to I'm going to mount it right here on the ground on a pad now I've got my pad setting out back I'm going to go ahead and take this unit and I'm going to put it on that pad you want to make sure you have a dolly because carrying the unit is not the best option it can hurt your back especially if you lift in properly but it is pretty lightweight so I'm going to go ahead and carry it I'm going to slip it on the pad and for me I'm going to measure from the building to the coil because your coil is going to face the building your Fan's going to face away I want to have it at least 12 in for me I like to have at least 12 in between the unit and the building pretty efficient look at this 22 sear that's pretty awesome for a sear rating before I push the line sets all the way through the wall I'm going to take and feed my cable inside for that indoor air handler I want to make sure that I wire it up and it's as easy as possible so now we can feed our power cable in to our indoor unit there's a knockout in here see the knock out much easier to feed that wire in with the unit off the wall so I'm going to take this cover off with a Philip screwdriver I love how these wires are labeled look at this one two 3 and then we've got our ground so you can't mess that up look at this one two three and then ground once you get that uh cover off for the electrical connections now we can take and feed this wire in and we can make it super simple and your wire should come up through there and then you can pull it up to your connections now that we've got our power cable for the indoor unit inside the location where it's supposed to be so we can connect those wires now we can take and push the line sets through the wall and then Mount the unit up on the bracket and then we can take our Mighty bracket off see there and right there [Music] make sure all right now we can connect these wires now if you want more room you want to be able to see the connections and be able to use your Philip screwdriver and make it easier for yourself you can actually take and remove this cover right here that covers the filter area by pressing this little plastic piece right here you want to make sure you're careful not to break it because this plastic can break very easily now here's that indoor ambient sensor that measures the air temperature as the air comes across we've got our filters I love it washable permanent you can just take them out like that wash them and then slip them back in that is awesome all right now I'm going to go ahead and connect these wires and very simple got the wire connection secured for the indoor now we're going to go to the outdoor and start hooking it up now I'm going to put this cover back on Phillips screwdriver I used then we'll put this piece back on now that we have the indoor unit installed we are going to connect the line sets and the power cable to the outdoor unit and then we'll work on setting up the solar panels and plugging it in now I'm going to use my Philips screwdriver or bit in my drill to take the cover off for the copper connections on this outdoor unit in it I want to see them so here's our suction line and our liquid line service valve and we know this is the suction line or vapor line cuz it's a larger Line This is/ qu in this is 38 here's where we would hook up our gauges we don't have to use a vacuum pump or nitrogen to pressure test because of the type of connectors we have now I'm going to take the cover off for the electrical connections to the outdoor unit is we'll need to connect that cable and it looks like there are five screws four on the sides two on each side one on the middle here's where our cable will enter and here's our connections now we're going to take and bend our line sets down straight now because this is quarter inch and 38 we can bend it but if it was 5/8 we wouldn't be able to bend this without a spring Bender or a tubing Bender now we can take our connectors off our caps off of our connectors and then as far as the drain pipe you can utilize this drain pipe here I really don't like to use this drain pipe I like to use PVC so I'm actually going to slip this into my pvc pipe like that and then I'm going to clamp it to the wall and I'm going to run my line set straight down down and then I'm going to curl the excess up and then I'll connect it I'm using this one hole clamp to make sure that my drain line is secured to the wall I'm also because it's a ribbed roof I'm using these metal screws and I got these from metal roofing screws. comom they've got a nice rubber washer and a dome cap and these are great for UV protection and making sure that washer doesn't doesn't dry Rod over time if you want to get some metal roofing screws check out metal roofing screws. comom use code taddy five for 5% off I'll put the link in the description drain line secured now to connect the cable inside I'll need to take out this fitting here and then I'm going to take because see this I'm going to take and which you could probably drill through this and then insert your cable but I'm not going to do that I'm going to take and put a/ inch connector in here so I'm going to take my wires and slide them through my half inch connector like this and then I'll just take and feed those wires up through this hole here where our electrical connections our terminals are and then I'll slide this piece over the wires so I'll just tighten this up I'll go ahead and wire this up and then we'll start on the line sets connecting the ground wire to the ground screw connecting wire labeled one to terminal labeled one connecting wire labeled two to terminal number two connecting wire labeled three to terminal label three if you're unsure of the wiring for this mini split system you can actually look at the rated voltage it says 115 volt AC or DC 90 to 380 volt solar air conditioner and inside the installation manual you'll see a wiring diagram and you'll see how we can connect our solar panels to a DC switch and then to the red and the black PB connector provided with this outdoor unit or we can supply 115 volt power to the n and the L that feed uh the brown and blue wire so brown and blue wire Inn L I can take and Supply it with 115 volt make sure you have the right brake size and you can find out what your breaker size needs to be by looking at this Max fuse since it's 115 volt will'll need a single pole 20 amp breaker or we can use the PV power now they make looks like models that are 230 and 115 and they have different sizes I think they offer a 12K which is one ton and 18K which is 1 and A2 and a 2ton which is uh 24,000 BTU now we're going to bend our line sets out as close as we can get them to where they're going to be installed take off these protective caps and your smaller line quick connectors go together larger line quick connectors go together we're going to screw those in and then we'll want to use couple crescent wrenches that way adjustable Crescent wrenches that way we can get it tight and we know it's not going to leak now when we finish we can use a leak detector which I'm going to show you what that looks like to be able to see if we have any refrigerant leaks I'm not going to tighten these up all the way not until I get the line set where I want them I've got the line sets where I want them I've got a cover for those l mindsets so if you want a custom cover I'll show you where to get it and talk about that when we go to install it now I'm taking these caps off make sure you get the Quick Connect lined up and make sure that it's easy to screw it on at first you don't want to cross thread the connection that would not be fun all right I have got to screw this unit down to the pad that way it doesn't slide and we can take and tighten it down using a torque wrench is a great idea to know exactly how tight to get the connection all right that feels like it's getting tight you don't want to overtighten it but you want to make sure that you tighten it enough all right that's definitely hand tight all right that right there about a quarter turn maybe a half a turn past hand tight yep when you see the copper start to turn that's enough now to tighten up those connections at the indoor I'm going take and use a crescent wrench two crescent wrenches is ideal got that where I want it once you feel it get tight little bit more and it's tight I like to make sure that we don't have any leaks before I wire tie all of this together and then I put my cover on for my line sets they included the Allen tool you need to actually open up the service valves I always open the larger service valve first but I have a set of Allen tools so I'm just going to going to use this open up that larger service valve first and then open up the smaller service valve I don't hear any leaks usually I use nitrogen and pressure test and then I use soap and water soap and Bubbles to test every connection but we're not doing that because these types of line sets are a little bit different the connectors are and we don't have have to do a pressure test use a vacuum pump use nitrogen and that's why this is good for somebody who is a DI wire somebody who is a homeowner could actually do this install um I wouldn't suggest it if you're not familiar with working with electricity and you just are not comfortable I would hire a professional after you install your connectors for your copper lines make sure you install these this is called in the manual the anti- decoupling ring and this keeps the copper tube from falling off so we're going to install one there and we're going to install one right here and then we're going to install the other two on the other two connectors this is a refrigerant leak detector and it's made by inficon and you can actually turn it on and I really need a new one cuz this one's it's been through it I've had it many years but you can take it turn it on and then you can take the little nozzle on the end and run it over the line sets where they connect and if it beeps like what you heard earlier then you may not have a connector tightened properly o see like right there so I need to go back down there and I need to check out that connector so make sure you use a refrigerant leak detector if you got one if you don't have one and you got a friend with one you make want to use theirs instead of having to buy one cuz they're quite expensive now I'm going to silicone around the sleeve and then inside the sleeve around where the line sets and cable go through that sleeve just to make sure that we don't have any air cold giraffes we don't have any insects coming inside make sure you seal everything up you can use low expansion foam to fill that Gap or you can actually use silicone I'm going to use silicone cuz I have it and now we can put these extra pieces of insulation right here that they send with the mini split like this and then we can put this around it this right here is what they sent so you can use this to tape around it I really don't like this stuff I like to use use wire ties I'm a wire tie guy so I'm going to wire tie all this up and then we're going to go to the next step now that I've got all the wire Ties on the line sets cable and piping everything looks nice if you want a really nice line set cover I use perac covers for my line set covers I can give you a discount code for those covers I'm not going to do that in today's video I want to get the solar panels and get those connected together together to this mini split and I want to get this thing running and see how good it works but I will drop a link in the description to the video for the line set cover I use for these line sets I need to get some power to the mini split so I'm going to take my solar panels outside and I'm going to connect them together and I'm going to connect them to the mini split the best place to put them right now is over here on this side of the building and I think I can get three lined up and angle them against the shed that way the sun will hit it and power that mini split so we can check it out see how good it works if you want to see the video of me mounting these solar panels then stay tuned okay so I've got three of these 395 watt panels leaning up against my shed temporarily got my PV wire you can see how it's connected in series and then the other two wires are coming over here now this is just for temporary I want to see how this thing works I'm not going to mount the PV disconnect on the wall until I get my panels mounted on either a ground Mount I'm probably not going to put them on my shed not sure how I'm going to mount them yet if you got any suggestions let me know always open to suggestions all right connected now we're going to close up the shed I'm going to turn on the equipment and I'm going to turn it on cooling mode the equipment comes with a remote control wireless remote control and then a remote control holder doesn't matter where you put the remote control the unit turns on and off based off of the temperature of the sensor that I showed you earlier that indoor ambient sensor so got the controller make sure you put the batteries in the controller the batteries can be found inside of the package where your manual was and then there's a little cover on the back of the remote controller so we're going to take it and see if you can see this power button here take and push the power button push mode and then you can change from the snowflake which is cooling to the water drops which are dry mode which is still cooling then that's fan mode and then the sun is heat mode and then back to auto mode we're going to put it on the snowflake which is cooling we're going to turn the temperature down all right and then we're going to adjust the vein so we should be able to adjust the vein by pushing this button here take a look at the vein you can see the vein's moving and then once you pick a good spot that you want to throw the air out click that button again the vein will stop moving I like to throw it out 90° because I want the air to travel as far across the shed or across the room as possible possible so now it's on it displays the temperature right here really nice using my dual induct pyrometer made by field piece I can check the temperature in the shed and it is about 82 de in the shed right now I'm going to use this to measure the supply air temperature and the return air temperature and then we're going to come back in an hour and check the temperature in the there is a QR code on the side of this wall mount Handler so you can scan this and you can download the app because you can actually control this unit via an app so I like the fact that it's got that Wi-Fi built in something I also like is the fact that you can turn the light on and off clicking that light button you can adjust the fan speed so there's low medium high even higher oh that's the high speed I like keep it right here cuz that's Auto and that will automatically adjust indoor fan speed to match compressor speed all right let's let it run outdoor fan is working it's running you can hear it that is awesome it's been exactly 30 minutes right now using my dual induct pyrometer says about 71° so let's check over here right above the return 72° so 72° inside we've dropped the temperature 10° inside the shed in 30 minutes and now let's see what the temperature is coming out of the Supply Air should be 20° cooler so it's 72 in here 71 something like that 71 72 deg and we've got temperature coming out of our SP fire cuz you can see where my probe is right 49° so we've got over we've got over a 20° split between our return and supplyer temperature 18 to 22° is good and I'd say this is great so I'm very happy it's been running 30 minutes my shed is 70° it's about 80° outside there's no doubt in my mind that this is going to do a great job this year now I just got to figure out where I'm going to mount my solar panels here's the mini rails that I ordered as well as the side and middle clamps to be able to mount these solar panels on my shed but because they didn't run the rib metal like this instead they they ran it like this right here I'm not going to be able to put very many panels on this side of the roof and I'd only want to put them right here because this is south facing so I've got to find another way to mount these panels on something if you got suggestions let me know what they are and whenever I mount those panels on something then I will install my DC disconnect for now I'm probably going to leave them right where they are brace them at the bottom and the top everything should be fine temporarily I hope you enjoyed today's video if you want to see the video of me installing the line set cover stay tuned and installing the solar panels on something permanently stay tuned I'll post both both those videos in the link in the description if you like the video hit the like button subscribe and smash that Bell ding so you know what I'm doing I'm not going to leave this on 16° C which would be about 60° fahr I'm going to turn this up to about 23° uh Celsius and that would be about 74° F so 73 74 this right here is a drain that you can connect to the bottom of the outdoor unit and you can actually connect a hose to that and you can take that hose and drain the water that drains during the winter away from the outdoor unit you see this is a heat pump so it does Heating and Cooling and when it does heating during the winter the outdoor unit will defrost and it will Tha the outdoor coil when it freezes up it will create water during the winter time during heat and this is a little drain piece that goes to the bottom of that outdoor unit what I do is I just take and I slant the pad in the outdoor unit so that whenever it freezes up it thaws out that water will drain away from that outdoor unit so just if you were curious about what this was I got this mini split this solar air conditioner from signature solar that's where I get all my solar kits and my solar bundles and if you want to purchase a solar air conditioner or a solar bundle or solar kit you can use discount code tadty 50 for $50 off your order at signature solar I'll post the discount code down below as well as the website for Signature solar where you can find all of your solar needs you've been watching hbac tips for homeowners technicians I'm Tad and I'll keep you cool if you let me

Channel: Taddy Digest

Views: 500,002

Keywords: Signature solar, Solar powered air conditioner, Solar powered mini split, Taddy Digest, eg4 electronics, eg4 electronics air conditioner, energy efficient, green cooling, green home solutions, hvac, innovative cooling, renewable cooling, signature solar, signature solar ac, solar ac unit, solar air conditioner, solar hvac, solar mini split, solar powered heat pump, sustainable cooling, taddy digest ac, solar power, eg4 18k, solar inverter, solar panels for home

Id: -fGgoRoi_u4

Length: 38min 47sec (2327 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 14 2024