DIY Minisplit AC!

[flyweightnate]

I know a lot of you have some well- established garage shops. Figured I'd share my latest discovery.

I do a fair amount of woodworking, and finishing is... sensitive to heat and humidity. Here in Dallas, that meant 6 months a year, I was on pause.

I recently discovered a bona fide DIY Minisplit system, up to four zones, and was skeptical... but it's also a third of the price of a professional install. So I did it. And the damn thing works. The app works, the remotes work, all the modes work... it's pretty awesome. About 8 hours of work (with a helper for half of it), zero unusual tools (no torque wrench or vacuum pump), and I can now survive summer heat.

MrCool DIY, if you're interested. If you can wire a dryer and install macro line, you can probably do this.

[Loophole]

We have these units in all the rooms of our house! They are incredible and pretty affordable if you DIY. Being able to only cool certain rooms during the summer has dropped our electricity bill substantially.

[Grendel]

I've been looking at them for my new shop mainly because they are so easy to install and from everything I hear are pretty good and reliable.

[Rainmaker]

So, do you install one per room? How much square footage will it cool effectively?

[Grendel]

They have a configure tool on their website the helps you decide model and number of units.

[flyweightnate]

I only really needed them for two rooms - my garage, and the quarter of my garage that I stole for an office - so I did two zones. It's a whole lot of capacity for the office.

Most people use a split with one air handler at each end of a house, and use ceiling fans or air exchange/ heat recovery units to mix the air. For about $900 per zone, though, there are a couple ways to skin the cat.