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Not all homes are made equal: different appliances & electronics from different vintages, etc.

I have 2 EVs (Tesla and BMW), an electric oven, and a homelab rack (but no HVAC), and my usage was 34.4 MWh last year — with 100% from Solar and Powerwall.



That’s an awful lot of power.

I’m waiting on a quote for an hvac that uses its waste heat for the home hot water. Im irritated that I’m cooling the house, pushing out hot air, and heating water at the same time.


Get a basic heat recovery unit, it basically has no moving parts (just a few fans) and good ones recover 90%+ of the heat going out of your house. It's almost useless if you don't have an airtight envelope though.

All in one systems with water heating are way too complex and _will_ fail relatively quickly, mini heat pumps won't last 10 years, and by the time it dies you won't be able to find a replacement for your specific model


> All in one systems with water heating are way too complex and _will_ fail relatively quickly, ...

Can you offer some evidence of this? I don't see how adding a refrigerant to water heat exchanger after the compressor, before the reversing valve, could possibly hurt the longevity of a system.

> ... mini heat pumps won't last 10 years, and by the time it dies you won't be able to find a replacement for your specific model

Thing with mini-splits is you replace the entire unit so it doesn't matter.


> Can you offer some evidence of this? I don't see how adding a refrigerant to water heat exchanger after the compressor, before the reversing valve, could possibly hurt the longevity of a system.

The nearly infinite amount of forum posts about heat pumps dying prematurely and costing thousands and thousands to fix. You don't see how adding complexity on top of complexity in a complex system add points of failures ?

> Thing with mini-splits is you replace the entire unit so it doesn't matter.

I forgot this is an american centric forum and things are just made cheap/disposable because "it's cheaper'


> You don't see how adding complexity on top of complexity in a complex system add points of failures ?

I don't see see a heat pump as complex. It's a compressor, valves and coils. The complexity are the stupid computers foisted onto us.

> I forgot this is an american centric forum and things are just made cheap/disposable because "it's cheaper'

We don't have a choice. Do you? We're all at the mercy of the manufactures.


This makes me sad. I’m in a 1940s house where the lack of it being airtight is a key reason it’s still standing as it leaks and the airflow dries it. Water flows down the inside of the brickwork, and the cavity is well ventilated.

Yay for New Zealand housing.


On that avenue, I do push hot air from my homelab into my upper garage for heat. If it below 50deg outside I also bring in some cold air from outside. Both are somewhat free offsets for heating/cooling.


You just need an air source heat pump water heater and install the water heater next right to the outdoor unit for the HVAC.




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