Cooling BTU's

[addicted56]

I know most people that build yurts live in climates that require

heating

. I on the other hand need cooling.

I will be placing a couple ductless mini-split units and I do have the

insulation

kit on my

Colorado yurts

.

I will be running a heat pump water heater in the pantry of the 30' yurt (approx 150 SQFT) and we have a 110V 6K AC unit that is filling an old gap that was cut in the yurt from the last owner that had a evaporitive system. This is mainly there in case we have a power outage I can run the 110V unit on the generator and keep at least one place in the house that is not boiling, though I doubt it will actually cool anything in that space.

So I was thinking an 18K BTU unit would be plenty for the 30' yurt and a 12K unit for the 24' yurt. Thoughts or does anyone have any experience in this department?

The 24K BTU unit is only 80 more bucks but I know systems are not as efficient if they are over or under sized.

Also thinking about running one of the portable heat pump units in the bathroom to keep it dry in there and to have something in the 12K BTU range that runs on 110V in case we have any hurricanes this year and we lose power in peak summer. 100 with 90% humidity is not fun.

[Jafo]

I do not have a definite answer but I will say that yurts breath a lot more than standard structures. I would think more is better (to a degree) with AC. You can always turn an AC down, but it only goes up so high.

[Bob Rowlands]

Cold air sinks to the lowest level within any given space, and secondly if that space is defined by thin cloth walls, you will lose the cooling pretty fast especially on a very hot day. I'd try and seal up the lower wall cover as tight as possible, including running a seperate cloth band around the lower perimeter where the wall meets the floor. Possibly rigging a huge tarp over the top of the yurt will help keep direct sun from

heating

the yurt cover.

[addicted56]

Bob,

I like the idea of a huge tarp over the yurts during the day. I should go to the excess equipment yard and pick up some of our camoflauge netting and rig a way that I can unroll/roll it up like you see on R/V's. That would make a huge difference and be nice when the kids want to be on the deck in the afternoon. The trees provide great shade but only before 10 and after 6 in the summer. In the winder we have shade almost all day at least on one portion of the deck.

Jafo,

I think I will oversize. I forget how much they breat and while I have great radiant

insulation

which works great for blocking the sun and keeping in stove heat, but horrible for the convective heating/cooling we will get from these units without R vlaued insulation.

[LivinintheRound]

I am having to make the same decision right now for my 30ft yurt. Where we live in Tennessee it can get very hot and humid. We are also in full sun between 10 and 6. I talked with a rep @ minisplitwarehouse and he recommended a 24000 but unit. My only concern is I want to go solar later and I haven't figured out how much more it will cost me in solar panels to run a 2 ton unit. We have a 27' yurt we are going to add later, so I am tempted to try the 18,000 unit for the 30' yurt and if it doesn't do the job i will just move it over to the 27' later. A friend of mine just replaced the refrigerant in his system with propane. It supposed to make it run 60% more efficient. If that is actually the case i will definitely go with the 24000 BTU. I would be curious to here from anyone in a hot weather climate that is using a mini split system and get a report on how it is working.

[addicted56]

I wish the edit button lasted longer for my posts. I go back and find all of the errors later.

That said glad to know I'm not the only one looking for these answers. Tennessee gets plenty hot in the summer and we are in a very similar boat.

The propane thing is very interesting. All of the mini-splits that I see come pre-charged with 410A so I will just use that. I will have to do some research.

I will not live in these yurts long so I can't invest much into solar panels but I have the same aspirations. Setting up for 220V adds additional cost though. Plus heating and cooling takes significant power. A Fridge, TV, lights are super easy these day. I still have my original plasma from 2002 that I bought in college but our fridge has a linear compressor and we will light with LED's. If we had an LED TV of equivalent size it really does not take that much to run a home these days. Computers like the chrome book are negligible on power consumption and really can just use the I phone for most of our needs. But until then we will have a backup generator for those emergency situations. Heating on the other hand is easy with wood but cooling is a whole different ball of wax.

[addicted56]

By the way Breezeone.com and thermospace.com both have better prices on units.

[addicted56]

Well if I stay on track we will be moving in around 1 August. I just ordered a 24K inverter unit for the 30' Yurt a 12K for the 24' yurt and a 14K portable unit that will be in the bathroom on the 24' yurt for heating, cooling, and more importantly dehumidifying.

So in the very hottest month of the year and in full sun for approx 8 hours a day we will find out if 24K BTU's is way overkill or not.

Also purchasing a small Hyundai Generator to run the 110V units in the house i case of power outage. I might need to get a hard start capacitor for the small AC units but at least we will have back up if we get hit with a hurricane or lose power for any other reason this summer.

[tnyurt]

I put a 36000 btu mini split in our 30 footer with full insulation package. We live near Nashville TN so plenty hot & humid. Heating with it was marginal. New Year's Eve was in the teens and the yurt was 59 degrees in the morning. Cooling has been good so far, but we haven't hit a 100 yet.

My only issue is noise as a 3 ton unit (36000 btu) moves a lot of cfm and that makes noise which bounces off the

dome

and gets louder. If I had to do it again I would get a mutiple zone unit either 18000 x 2 or 24000 x 2. I was trying to be cheap, paid $2400 for the 3 ton Gree unit installed. Get what you pay for!

Hope this helps. Happy yurting!

[tnyurt]

I noticed my picture shows my groovy yurt but I have the mini split in my 30 foot

Yurts of America

yurt on a concrete foundation with 6 windows. I wish I had opted for the bronze tinted

dome

to reduce the heat from sun.