Mini Split install

[alloy]

In June I bought a place with a 1700 square foot shop, there was a house too

The shop has no heat or cooling in it. For power it had 70 amps taken from the house which isn't near enough for me. Today I completed my 400 amp power upgrade and had everything hooked up by the PUD. Now the house has 200 amps, and so does the shop. I did it all myself, it was quite a chore to say the least. But I wasn't willing to pay $4000 to an electrician to do it. I must have done ok, I passed both inspections with flying colors.

I purchased a MR Cool 36k mini split to heat and cool the shop. It also came in today. It's a bigger unit than I had anticipated. The inside air handler is 4ft long and pretty heavy so going to be a real chore to get it mounted on the wall.

My question is, where to put the air handler. In the pic you an see the peak of the shop above the lift, and to the right on the side wall is all my machinery. I'm debating on putting the air handler above the lift and shop door, or should I put it off to the right side above the tool boxes nearer my machinery. Where the machines are is where I spend the bulk of my time in the shop.

This is the first time I've installed a min split and and insight would be appreciated. If all goes well I'll get one for my house too.

 

[ttabbal]

I would put it where you will be working. I installed a 12k in my garage and it's been great. They aren't difficult to install. Those Mr Cool units are nice if you have the ones that don't need to be vacuumed down. I have a pump, so I went with a "normal" one.

 

[Fueler]

I used the same unit in my shop. I placed the outside unit on a frame about the same height as the tailgate on my truck. I guess by now you can see why.
I put it on the east side away from prevailing winds and snow. Mounting it up off the ground keeps the weeds, snow and critters away from it.
I made my own L brackets as the store bought versions are not stout enough for the bigger units and will sag. Not a cool look.

You are correct that inside piece is a beast but worth it.
Inside unit I mounted on one of those cross Purlins(?). I think it was at the 8 foot level. You may need to add a board above or below to have a good support base.
To install I took a couple of straps on the unit. I then screwed an eye bolt to a beam on the ceiling above, grabbed a baby chain hoist and pulled it up. Still a bit awkward but doable. The only better choice is 2 guys and 2 ladders.

Mount it where you can get at it easily to pull and clean the filters once a month at the least.
I got my outside shutoff box from Menards.
I also installed a surge protector on the shutoff box. If you need a reference I can look it up.

For shop use a fan mounted up high improves things. Slow speed in the winter, faster in the summer.

It's been 5 years now. Worth the investment. I have since installed two smaller units on my home.

 

[eeler1]

My father was an electrician, IBEW and all. I call him up and say I hooked the thingy up so-and-so and ask if it’s correct. He asks “ does it work?”. I say yes it seems to. “Then you did it right” he says. Very simple test, too.

I have a mini-split in the shop, formerly known as a garage, and love it. Only thing to make it better, I sometimes wish the shop were further away from the house.

 

[alloy]

It wasn't fun putting the air handler on the wall, but we got it. I had bought the Mr Cool line covers and they just didn't work for me. I didn't like the idea of having about 20 ft of line coiled up so I put the compressor behind my shop. I ran the lines horizontally and turned a corner and went down the wall far enough to use all the line up. I have to buy two line cover sets but it looks pretty good. Got them on Amazon for half the price of the MR Cool ones. They aren't as big inside and I had to take tie wraps to compress the insulating cover down to fit inside the line covers.

The problem I have now is the wire that connects to the compressor from air handler is too short. You screw the lines on and the wire is 12" too short. I don't want to splice them. I shouldn't have too. I looked at youtube installs and their wire way much longer than mine is. I've emailed Irgrams and waiting for their answer.

I used to have a 2 car garage that I called a shop. With a mill, lathe, compressor, big parts washer and about 20 car transmisisons I think it qualified as a shop. Now with 1700 sq ft shop I sometimes accidentally call my shop the garage

 

[alloy]

I finally got the mini split working. The compressor is very quite and it does a decent job heating my 1700 squre foot shop. I did have to splice the wires to make them longer, and the lines were unequal length and had to do get creative to find a way to use them, but it all worked out. I put a disconnect on the outside of the shop just in case it's ever needed.

 

[ddickey]

So far I really like mine.

 

[JimDawson]

Congratulations! From the sounds of it you are a qualified electrician and a HVAC installer

I like your EXIT sign/emergency light setup above the door. Good call! Every home shop should have emergency lighting. Make sure to test it about once a month. I have mine on a red handled breaker for easy identification.

 

[alloy]

Thanks. The hardest part of it all was my power upgrade to 400 amps so I could run everything. I only had 70 amps. The work wasn't hard (well not too hard) the real hard part was getting information on how to do it. It was like pulling teeth from the PUD engineer. I finally contacted labor and industries (they do the inspections) and was able to send them pics and get advise. But the day they were supposed to show up (my day off) the were nowhere to be found. So I had to take a day off of work to get it inspected.

The exit sign I got at Lowes on a closeout table. It had been a store display and I got it for $5.

 

[Skowinski]

I finally got the mini split working. The compressor is very quite and it does a decent job heating my 1700 squre foot shop. I did have to splice the wires to make them longer, and the lines were unequal length and had to do get creative to find a way to use them, but it all worked out. I put a disconnect on the outside of the shop just in case it's ever needed.

Maybe I missed it - how well insulated is your shop? We are planning a retirement home, and there will be two garages. One for the car and truck, and a separate (both attached) 1,000 sq. ft. garage/shop with 9 ft. ceiling for the toys. Currently planning R19 walls and R50 perhaps ceiling insulation in the shop and was thinking of putting a 36k BTU mini-split system on it. Winter temps down into the 20's night and 40-50 days, summers up around 90 F days. I'm thinking it will work, but still researching....