Ordered the 2 ton EG4 Mini split with solar panels.

I don’t know anything about this, what’s the story the solar is supposed to be able to run it by itself?

I’m curious how close a middle class person could build a house basically off the grid these days? Something like this with a reasonable amount more of solar, some propane, well water, etc. Seems like if you gave us a couple smaller luxuries, used less lighting, and were smart about your consumption you could do this now reasonably?

I know a rich person could, I just mean reasonably.

I don't intend to go off grid. Just keeping my options open. Main system is a bit oversized at 4 ton. (2,700' with the space split evenly between 10 and 12' ceilings.) This system will run all the time at a setup temperature I've yet to decide on. What's cool about this unit is you bring the solar strings directly to it and it will run entirely on that, assuming good sunlight. If you also land the grid wires to their respective connection, then in the instance it is cloudy and needs to run but not having enough to cover the electrical requirements, it will prioritize the solar, and then draw the difference from the grid.

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Main system is a bit oversized at 4 ton. (2,700' with the space split evenly between 10 and 12' ceilings.)

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Are you in Texas? That sounds like a 6 ton house around here.

So, if I am reading right. It stays between 85 and 90 degrees in your house? If so, you are more of a man than I am!

The manual shows that you can see real time solar and grid input usage.

It has a counter in the app that shows cumulative watt hours saved.... this is just counting how much solar the unit has used.

It also has an AC limiter that can be set from 0 to 600 watts.

Manual

Texas boys like it hot!

I measured up the inside and outside so that the pipes came down parallel to a rib while still being between studs.


I keep finding more uses for the sheet rock hoist

That should read I taped up the lines and electrical going to the unit, not taped to the unit lol. I took my readings about 30 minutes into the run after startup yesterday and the thing tops out at 6 A total 240 V. This morning, the great room was at 73° and the rest of the house was at 76 to 78°. I will take readings again tomorrow morning as last night was the whole house acclimating and I have a lot of mass in my interior 2 x 6 walls. I haven’t been able to get the app to sync with the unit on the house Wi-Fi and will be calling them to work out the kinks there. I don’t have the solar panels tied in yet, and that might be several weeks as I intend to build a framework that I’m going to suspend them on my cattle pens.

So you are hoping to cool it low enough in the evening to only run ceiling fans? That just doesn't seem possible. You are in texas? What's your overnight lows? If you are in an arid area that gets cooler at night I could potentially see that I suppose.