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Have you considered mini-splits?

We have a lot of solar panels. Generation this week has been 78-83 kWh per day, so we'll bank power this month and get creamed in December, giving it all back.

My office had no heat when we bought the place, so we installed a mini-split system and saved over using 1,500 watt foot heaters and got AC to boot. Surprisingly, I didn't notice much of a change in power usage with the insanely high SEER rating of the new products. We don't need AC that much like you do, usually just a few weeks of Indian Summer though we've been getting either hotter summers or I'm more adverse to heat because we use it on days we don't have to have it.

The main house didn't have AC and the heater and vents would have had to be potentially changed or replaced with a combo unit in the attic with all new ducting. The current system is in the basement with floor vents. Since the mini-split worked well and cheaply in the office, we went with a separate mini-split system for 4 zones, three bedrooms and the family/kitchen room. It works great and each zone has its own control. Rather than running the air on hot nights for the whole house, we can just cool our bedroom.

Our typical power usage mostly varies based on AC use which would add next to nothing or up to 300-400 kWh on the highest bill. The heater rarely turns on from April to October or does so for just a hour or less in the morning.

-Rod


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