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Picking and testing devices

A project log for Smart Apartment HVAC

My apartment has, lets just say lackluster heating and no air conditioning or ventilation. So, I'm building a simple "smart" system for it.

john-duffyJohn Duffy 06/29/2022 at 05:120 Comments

First serious part of this was figuring out what big parts I need - AC units, fans, heater.  For months I've had a 5000 btu portable AC unit upstairs for the kitchen, and a 6000btu in the bedroom.  This mostly worked fine for the bedroom in the fall/winter/spring, but come May this started underperforming.  I switched out the portable for a used 10000 btu window unit (more efficient and less precarious! big win.). Also added a permanent vent fan in the kitchen with some foam louvers.  This had worked OK but was super hacky and needs an upgrade.  Bedroom needs a vent fan too. 

Recently added some fans to move air between upstairs, the stairwell, and the kitchen.  This is better but still not getting me the cooling performance I need, I'm probably going to switch this out for a more powerful fan and some tubing to get air directly to the kitchen from the AC.  Also an outside vent from upstairs, to dissipate hot air that's risen up would be useful, but I'll worry about that later.  

For heating, the situation isn't as tough.  I've already got a big powerful, built in gas heater in the kitchen, but had to get an electric one for the bedroom.  Over winter I'd usually put this on a timer, keep it cold overnight and just use a blanket, but bring it up to like 70 right before I get up.  This worked fine.  Not being bound to windows, and needing far less heating power overall (its pretty warm here year round) makes heating relatively simple. 

So, the whole shebang is: 

-Two window AC units 

-Five fans (though I may add more eventually) 

-One gas heater

-One electric heater

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