Heater selection

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neb

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#1631158 15-Sep-2016 17:56

timmmay:
It's definitely loudest when it's first on, it seems to be on fan setting 4/5 initially. Just keeping the room warm it seems to go down only one notch to 3/5, and sometimes not even that low. I manually set it to lowest fan position and it's pretty good, and if you set it to silent it is really quiet, but I wonder what it does to the efficiency.

You may also want to check how "smart" (meaning dumb) the controller is, for example with some systems if you set them to maintain, say, 21 degrees then they'll pump out hot air at max rate, overshoot, pump out cooler air to correct, overshoot, pump out hot air again, and so on, all at a high volume and noise level. You'd need to either read your manual or experiment to find the quietest set of settings if your system isn't that smart. For example my older Mitsubishi has multiple semi-overlapping and inconsistent modes, all illustrated with incomprehensible icons, most of which are differentiated only by the level of noise they make. The starry-icon mode (whatever one that is) is the best one, it's heat-only so it doesn't care if it overshoots, it just stops heating for awhile if it gets too warm. That's the lots-of-noise-initially, then occasional-boost mode I referred to earlier.

timmmay

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#1631160 15-Sep-2016 17:59

neb:
timmmay:

It's definitely loudest when it's first on, it seems to be on fan setting 4/5 initially. Just keeping the room warm it seems to go down only one notch to 3/5, and sometimes not even that low. I manually set it to lowest fan position and it's pretty good, and if you set it to silent it is really quiet, but I wonder what it does to the efficiency.

You may also want to check how "smart" (meaning dumb) the controller is, for example with some systems if you set them to maintain, say, 21 degrees then they'll pump out hot air at max rate, overshoot, pump out cooler air to correct, overshoot, pump out hot air again, and so on, all at a high volume and noise level. You'd need to either read your manual or experiment to find the quietest set of settings if your system isn't that smart. For example my older Mitsubishi has multiple semi-overlapping and inconsistent modes, all illustrated with incomprehensible icons, most of which are differentiated only by the level of noise they make. The starry-icon mode (whatever one that is) is the best one, it's heat-only so it doesn't care if it overshoots, it just stops heating for awhile if it gets too warm. That's the lots-of-noise-initially, then occasional-boost mode I referred to earlier.

I just set it on heat, auto fan when it first comes on to preheat, which I do using a third party timer. If it's too loud I turn the fan down. Mine's modern and efficient, but I'm not super impressed by it overall. The Daikin is slightly lower capacity, but smarter and quieter, so when the Fujitsu breaks (which will be years) I'll change it.

neb

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#1631168 15-Sep-2016 18:05

timmmay:
I just set it on heat, auto fan when it first comes on to preheat, which I do using a third party timer. If it's too loud I turn the fan down. Mine's modern and efficient, but I'm not super impressed by it overall. The Daikin is slightly lower capacity, but smarter and quieter, so when the Fujitsu breaks (which will be years) I'll change it.

Ah, on my Mitsubishi auto-heat/auto-fan is the poor-hysteresis excessive-noise mode I described previously. Here's an explanation of the symbols for other Mitsubishi owners. You want Heat mode, not Auto mode.

It'd be interesting to get other people's input on what the best unit is for a combination of heating + low noise. The bearings on mine have been on the blink for the last two winters, but I'm reluctant to replace it because you need to replace the outdoor unit as well.

MadEngineer

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#1631173 15-Sep-2016 18:06

A single conventional heater can easily consume $200 or more a month. Couple or three winters and you've paid for a heatpump which consumes a fraction of the energy. Are you renting?

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

richms

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#1631185 15-Sep-2016 18:33

My fujitsu is useless with auto mode, it will heat in the morning just fine to the 20 to 22 setpoint , but then when the sun starts coming in and it gets too hot, it will get up to about 25 before it decides to do something about shifting into cooling, and because it has been ticking along on heat up to the point it takes a long time to start cooling even if I change it myself.

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MadEngineer

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#1631196 15-Sep-2016 18:43

Haha mine is set to turn off at 7am at which point we open windows. If it gets hot the house is ventilated naturally. Winter is so warm lately we don't heat our house during the day.

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

alasta

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#1631215 15-Sep-2016 18:58

MadEngineer: A single conventional heater can easily consume $200 or more a month. Couple or three winters and you've paid for a heatpump which consumes a fraction of the energy. Are you renting?

Only if you spend a lot of time at home. I use an electric heater and my power usage in the middle of winter is only about 200kwh higher than the middle of summer. Over a full year it probably only costs me about $250 a year to run.

If I convinced the landlord to install a heat pump then I'm sure he'd put my rent up by far more than that.

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Jaxson

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#1631228 15-Sep-2016 19:09

richms:

My fujitsu is useless with auto mode, it will heat in the morning just fine to the 20 to 22 setpoint , but then when the sun starts coming in and it gets too hot, it will get up to about 25 before it decides to do something about shifting into cooling.

From a commercial/industrial perspective this 'energy saving' control philosophy is incredibly frustrating to work with. There's a massive deadband before it changes modes in the 'Auto' setting, so the room is actually only rarely at the temperature you've asked for.

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