The cobbler’s children get some new shoes! (We finally went ahead and replaced the heat pump in our own home.)
After four years of high humidity from the oversized single stage heat pump the centerpiece of our new comfort system is in place! We’ll be going from a 2.5-ton to a 1.5-ton … No worries, we got this!
The Mitsubishi Electric Trane US Hyper Heat SUZ/SVZ heat pump was an easy decision because it’s our most frequently installed system in client’s homes. The performance, efficiency, and reliability at this system’s price-point make it a great value.
Next step is to install a Santa Fe and Ultra Aire by Santa Fe Dehumidifiers.
The dehumidifier is going to live in the crawl space but serve the living space, so I needed to get a duct from the crawl space into the mechanical closet. There was no space for it until I created one when the air handler was swapped-out. I was holding out on installing a whole home dehumidifier until I could do it “right”. By “right” I mean a dedicated return, and the dehumidifier’s supply air ducted to the heat pump supply plenum.
Currently I have a Broan-NuTone fresh-air fan injecting MERV 16 filtered air into the return duct. This relatively recent addition was much needed. Once I started monitoring CO2 I realized we had an issue — levels were consistently in the +1500 ppm range. My target is to maintain <800 ppm, which we are able to do now at about 60 CFM of air, 24/7. It will be interesting to see the impact on indoor humidity (lower in the winter, higher in the spring/summer/fall). One of the reasons we like the Broan FIN 180-B is that it has multiple speeds. This gives you the ability to easily adjust the amount of fresh air being brought in so you don’t over ventilate. (May require seasonal adjustments)
I’m currently undecided whether to leave my fresh-air system as-is, or incorporated into the dehumidifier once it’s installed — we’ll see…
I’ll be sure share any updates, including if this 1.5-ton heat pump can maintain 70° inside my 2050 square foot house without any auxiliary heat. Stay tuned!