HVAC: What's best for cold climates?

[Sbob]

Noisy is bad it means you're compressor is being stressed is it possible you're low on refrigerant

Or a loose screw, put your hand on different places when it’s running. It doesn’t take much vibration to make lots of noise.

 

[Milo Maltbie]

Noisy is bad it means you're compressor is being stressed is it possible you're low on refrigerant

Look for something blocking the heat exchanger. They get clogged up with debris every year.

mm

 

[Campgottagopee]

Question for those who might know ...

Would high winds affect a heat pump? It could be all in my head, but when it's in the 20's and windy AF my units seem to put out like warm air at best. When the wind dies down the heat seems to return. Maybe I'm just nuts..... dunno

 

[Campgottagopee]

I did some googling. Turns out high winds in cold temperatures negativity affect the performance of these heat pumps. Where mine is located I definitely catch big winds.

I think an easy solution for me would be to stack up some hay bails a couple feet away from the unit. The wind shouldn't blow them over and I can easily dispose of the bails come spring time. It's located behind the house so it won't be an eyesore and they're cheap.

 

[Sbob]

I did some googling. Turns out high winds in cold temperatures negativity affect the performance of these heat pumps. Where mine is located I definitely catch big winds.

I think an easy solution for me would be to stack up some hay bails a couple feet away from the unit. The wind shouldn't blow them over and I can easily dispose of the bails come spring time. It's located behind the house so it won't be an eyesore and they're cheap.

Wind ? The fan blows across the outdoor coil to facilitate energy transfer. So wind should help performance. Some units have quirks.

I had a dual unit that would blow cooler air from 20-40° . The homeowner was an engineer and had all kinds of temperature data and what he said was 100% correct. I called tech support with the data and they had no idea why.

Most common problems for heat pumps is dirty air filters.

 

[Campgottagopee]

From what I read it's only under high winds with cold temps. Mine seems to have issues when it's in the 20's and the wind is ripping. I'm talking 25 mph +. I catch a shit ton of wind at my house. Apparently it will cool the coolant enough so it's not putting out the proper temps. It kinda makes sense. The head unit downstairs seems to work much better in these conditions than the upstairs unit. I'm guessing because it's an extremely short run vs the one upstairs.

Anyway, I'll report back this coming winter once I have my wall of hay installed.....LoL

 

[Andy_ROC]

In one of our data centers one of the hvac units will temporarily shut down if it's very cold and windy. The wind blowing directly on the coil combined with a cold air temperature will cause the refrigerant to contract enough that the unit will temporarily shuts down due to a low pressure fault.

 

[Campgottagopee]

That's what mine does. The upstairs head unit constantly tries to reach temperature but it just can't get there. It will completely shut down. Once it does turn on the air coming out of it is like warm, at best. Once the winds die down it's back to normal.

 

[Campgottagopee]

Again, it has to be cold out. If it's in the 30's there's no issue with it

 

[TheGreatAbyss]

The ground close to the house won’t freeze but a few feet further will . Also when they defrost the water drains into the ground around the pad. Re level it in spring, It’s good to have several inches of gravel so the water can drain.

My compressors are all on mounts attached to the foundation of the house FWIW. When I installed my last project they initially put it on some janky stand and I made them do the mount.