Comment by quickthrowman

Comment by quickthrowman 15 days ago

7 replies

Cooling BTUs already take the coefficient of performance of the vapor-compression cycle into account. 4w of heat removed for each 1w of input power is around the max COP for an air cooled condenser, but adding an evaporative cooling tower can raise that up to ~7.

I just looked at a spec sheet for a 230V single-phase 12k BTU mini-split and the minimum circuit ampacity was 3A for the air handler and 12A for the condenser, add those together for 15A, divide by .8 is 18.75A, next size up is 20A. Minimum circuit ampacity is a formula that is (roughly) the sum of the full load amps of the motor(s) inside the piece of equipment times 1.25 to determine the conductor size required to power the equipment.

So the condensing unit likely draws ~9.5-10A max and the air handler around ~2.4A, and both will have variable speed motors that would probably only need about half of that to remove 12k BTU of heat, so ~5-6A or thereabouts should do it, which is around 1/3rd of the 16A server, or a COP of 3.

Dylan16807 15 days ago

Well I don't know why that unit wants so many amps. The first 12k BTU window unit I looked at on amazon uses 12A at 115V.

  • quickthrowman 13 days ago

    That is probably just bad data entry at Amazon. I don’t ever trust the specification data on Amazon, I look for the manufacturer’s spec sheet/cutsheet.

    In this case, 12A is the maximum continuous load allowed on a 15A breaker. The unit itself probably uses between 900-1000w (7.5A to 8.3A), the spec sheet might say 12A to encourage a dedicated circuit for the A/C unit which then gets added to Amazon’s specs on their website.

    • Dylan16807 13 days ago

      I think I finally found an actual product page: https://bdachelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/2319602600002...

      The amazon page specifically said 1354 watts, but I think that's actually for the 14300BTU model. 12000BTU is 9.72 amps.

      Anyway, doesn't this make my actual argument stronger? These units fit even better into a normal circuit than I thought, and make the mini-split look even worse in comparison.

      • quickthrowman 12 days ago

        4.5-5A at 240V = 9.72A at 120V

        It’s the same level of power consumption. I’m not even sure what you’re asking at this point, to be honest.