ShockValue's New Home Build Log

random question but what's a heat pump?

A heat pump is just like an air conditioner where it takes heat from what part of the system and moves it to another. The difference is a heat pump can "run backwards" too. In the summer move heat from inside to outside, and in cooler months move heat from outside to inside. Kinda stops working in real cold temps outside though, kinda like getting blood from a stone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pump
 
Works great in Seattle since we rarely have any extreme hot/cold. I'm not a big fan of A/C in this climate, but on those few days (like last week when we were breaking 104F) it's really nice to have!
 
Works great in Seattle since we rarely have any extreme hot/cold. I'm not a big fan of A/C in this climate, but on those few days (like last week when we were breaking 104F) it's really nice to have!

I searched on Home Depot and Lowe's for 'heat pump' and I didn't see a lot of stuff...where do you get one of these?
 
Heat pumps are large pieces of equipment usually installed with your furnace. It's not the type of thing you can get at Home Depot and install yourself.

example pic:
2_13_seer_heat_pump_2_JPG.jpg
 
Why did you put in next your house and the windows - in a couple of years when the fans are not so quiet it is going to ruin that sound system of yours ;)
 
Heat pumps are large pieces of equipment usually installed with your furnace. It's not the type of thing you can get at Home Depot and install yourself.

It looks like an air conditioner... Reading up about heat pumps, it seems like they operate in the exact same way as an air conditioner: with a refrigerated heat exchanger. So this thing is supposed to vent hot air out of your house; if you suck hot air out of the house, you'll create a negative relative pressure and suck air in from the outside. So if I understand correctly, the best this thing could possibly do is equalize the temperature of your home with the temperature outside?

I'm missing something, obviously...
 
Heat pumps are large pieces of equipment usually installed with your furnace. It's not the type of thing you can get at Home Depot and install yourself.

It looks like an air conditioner... Reading up about heat pumps, it seems like they operate in the exact same way as an air conditioner: with a refrigerated heat exchanger. So this thing is supposed to vent hot air out of your house; if you suck hot air out of the house, you'll create a negative relative pressure and suck air in from the outside. So if I understand correctly, the best this thing could possibly do is equalize the temperature of your home with the temperature outside?

I'm missing something, obviously... Is it just an air conditioner that you can run in reverse?
 
Works great in Seattle since we rarely have any extreme hot/cold. I'm not a big fan of A/C in this climate, but on those few days (like last week when we were breaking 104F) it's really nice to have!

I'm sorry, but I just can't sympathize. I'm in Houston and we just had a whole month of 100 degree days.

Where else would you put the heat pump/condensor/whatever you call it? A/C is essential to life down here and the condensor/compressor always goes right beside the house. Too expensive to run the freon lines any further, and it opens them up to damage.
 
It looks like an air conditioner... Reading up about heat pumps, it seems like they operate in the exact same way as an air conditioner: with a refrigerated heat exchanger. So this thing is supposed to vent hot air out of your house; if you suck hot air out of the house, you'll create a negative relative pressure and suck air in from the outside. So if I understand correctly, the best this thing could possibly do is equalize the temperature of your home with the temperature outside?

I'm missing something, obviously...
They equalize the temperature and also further heat it up or cool it down. They are limited to their range of possible temperatures. They can only heat up the house or cool it down by so many degrees compared to the outdoor temperature. I personally hate the one I have because I like NE of Dallas, Texas and so it doesn't get the room temperature all that cool when you have an average of 100 degrees at least daily outside.
 
panfist: Yes, you are missing something. But I'm not an HVAC guy, so I can't explain it. All I know is it's one of the most efficient ways to heat/cool your home and there are bujillions (estimated number at the time of this writing) of them installed across the US.

epemithus: I wouldn't expect you to sympathize :) But us northern-folk melt at anything above 90!

cyberjt: That's not my heatpump.. Just put a picture up there to demonstrate what it was (aka, example pic) . Mines on the opposite end of the house from our living quarters outside the garage.
 
noticed this thread got side tracked to heat pumps....

having a house that runs one myself i'll chime in.

heat pump is sort of a bad term for it...its really more like a heat exchanger...hell, "heat" is really a bad term for it too. it's more like an "energy exchange"(if you wanna talk thermodynamics, etc etc etc etc....@_@)works almost the same way as a water cooling unit in a computer, you draw heat from one source and dump it into another, with a house during the summer, that'd be outside ;)...thing is, you can also run it "in reverse" during the winter....usable temps for a heat pump, even super efficient modern ones is only moderate, anything below 32F and the pump is essentially working overtime to get virtually nothing done or just to break even in it's closed system. at this point REALLY f*ckin expensive electric heater coils can be turned on to help make up the difference in temperature and provide heat for the house.
 
A heat pump still utilizes your normal furnace and condensing unit (the "A/C" you have outside your house with the fan). But as said, it can run "backwards"

In cooling mode for standard air conditioning and a heat pump, air is brought into the furnace from your house and passes over a metal coil which has a liquid refrigerant inside. The heat from the air literally boils this refrigerant which is then pumped outside to the condensing unit. The condensing unit then moves the heat from the refrigerant to the outside air and the gas refrigerant becomes a liquid once again. The gas condenses into a liquid, hence the term condensing unit. The refrigerant moves through the small copper tube and insulated tube that connect to the furnace and the condensing unit.

In heating mode this process is reversed, but is exactly the same. Heat is moved from outside through the "condensing unit" (technically it's a heat pump now) and into the furnace and ultimately your home.

Sorry for the threadjack. Very nice looking wiring, planned out very well.
 
Hi ShockValue (and everybody!)

I've just subscribed to this great thread! We will be doing a remodelling a house soon and I hope to do exactly what you are doing here.

Just one question that has been at me for a while now. Whats the story with your CAT6 wire and electrical wire? Are you using shielded or did you carefully plan your run and make sure that all CAT6 runs are 12 inches <?> away from electrics?

Most people have told me to stay away from shielded cable as it can be awkward to install as you need to maintain the shield throughout.

I also really like the way you are running RG-6 cable around the house. I plan on doing the same for security cameras etc..

Keep up the good work!

Oh and sorry to hear about your situation with the tiler.
 
All the network cable is at least 1 stud bay away on the opposite side. So about 16" minimum. At the places where I HAD to cross, I did so at a 90' angle to minimize interferance. I did the same with rg6 and audio cables as well.

The exception to this is the audio control pads. For asthetics I mounted them directly above the light switches in each room, which had some of my wires running paralel in near proximity for a few feet. I took the chance that the audio control boxes didn't really need that clean of a signal since they use Cat wiring, but don't really use ethernet to communicate.

I read up on sheilded vs unshielded and decided that the pain and extra cost to run shielded wasn't worth it. In fact, i know lots of places that run plain old Cat5e in pretty crappy scenerios (flourescent lights, tangled around UPSs, etc) and still get decent gigabit speeds. So I knew being carefull that UTP wouldn't be an issue.
 
Looking really good. I wondered where you were at judging by the little bit of outside photos. +1 for another PNW [H] member.
 
Well I did my first punching down of cables to the panel today. Only got through eight of them before I went to my doctors appointment (hooray I have 'walking pneumonia')

Anyway, I wasn't very thrilled on how the cable looked when punched down. Does anyone have a good video or something that shows not just the finished product (lots of those awesome pics floating around) but the actual method used for punching down so that the end product is neat and tidy?
 
show us pics and we can tell you what you did wrong.

you want to strip them all the same length
 
you want to strip them all the same length

I thought this was true, but I saw a few videos of someone punching in keystone jacks where pretty much all there was no consideration for length.

I hope I don't have to go back and re-do all my keystones...
 
I'll be getting some pics this afternoon. I know what I did would be functional, it's not very asthetic which will keep me awake at night ;)
 
Using the wire management as a wire sorting tool :)
3822420234_b3828d2725.jpg


Some shots of the first bundle punched down. Not particularly impressed with my neetness skills and would love some suggestions :)
3821612379_6dd6f6248d.jpg

3822417160_b2572224a0.jpg

3822416670_59f7f086f8.jpg

3822417880_814d07eb59.jpg
 
whats wrong with that? usually i strip the wires the length of the longest one.

so if your patching 1 through 12. I strip the wires to the length of what is needed for 12. then zip tie them around 1 and patch away.

thats how i saw it done and thats how i do it.

if its wrong i wouldn't mind knowing =)

i dont see where yours isn't neat. thats very clean. i dont think i would change anything.

i will say that some velcro ziptie maybe nicer =)

looking good Shock
 
I'm glad to see that other people take pride in making their patch panels look neat and tidy. Sure it could be a bit better, but I wouldn't loose sleep over it, that's for sure. In my opinion as long as it all looks the same (like yours does) it looks neat. The only thing I might suggest is getting some double sided Velcro. We used to use zip ties on the panels but Velcro just looks and works so much better! Also, I suggest hiding any excess cable you have by making a big coil up in the ceiling if possible. Then you bring your bundle of cable straight down the leg of your rack and make a 90 degree bend onto your patch panel. Take a look at the first picture in this post. You basically want it to look like that on the back of your panels, just on a smaller scale of course ;).

Anyways, your house is looking good! I look forward to seeing it finished in it's entirety.
 
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Curious where your switch will go with the cable management between two panels?
 
You want to have as little jacket removed as possible, and as little untwisted wire as possible. Here's a picture of the back of my patch panel and some jacks:
Yeah, I know, I need to redo some of mine.
DSCN3792.jpg


DSCN3794.jpg
 
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Just wanted to say everything looks great! That patch job looks fine..i wouldnt lose any sleep over it. Cant wait to see everything else!
 
I'm sorry, but I just can't sympathize. I'm in Houston and we just had a whole month of 100 degree days.

Where else would you put the heat pump/condensor/whatever you call it? A/C is essential to life down here and the condensor/compressor always goes right beside the house. Too expensive to run the freon lines any further, and it opens them up to damage.

haha so true, I'm in Tyler, TX and 100+ is a typical summer day...
 
Long time since I've posted at H, but Jeff's advice is solid (hi jeff). Jeff and I used to chat about wiring many times over.

Here's some shots from when I was still installing networks for a living

Like you, I start out with sorting
IMG_3339.jpg


Here's a wide shot while it's finished - you want as little of the twisted pairs exposed like jeff said
IMG_3343.jpg


As fas as how much to cut back? I always pick a spot in the middle of the actual punchdowns and then a 1/4 inch back...sort of leaves a bit of a pyramid shape to the wires.

IMG_3344.jpg


and here's a close up...I label everything, everytime.

IMG_3345.jpg


That was Cat5e, you want to try to be a little tighter with cat6.

Hope that helps!
 
Nice work man! I'll have a few more shots up soon. Unfortunately since my wiring doesn't hold up our CO permit, it keeps getting bumped to the bottom of the list :)
 
Good idea to put network and RG6 in the attic? I think so :)


WRT54G v1.0 running Tomato. Temporarily laying around in attic until I can find those dang mounting brackets:
3873699366_d078081b28.jpg


Winegard HD-6010 omnidirectional FM antenna. My reception sucks, so I put this in the attic. My reception still sucks. Waste of $40.00 and a morning of sweating in insulation.
3873701010_c99f4659b2.jpg
 
Winegard HD-6010 omnidirectional FM antenna. My reception sucks, so I put this in the attic. My reception still sucks. Waste of $40.00 and a morning of sweating in insulation.
3873701010_c99f4659b2.jpg

You should get rid of the wind of cable, it is possible that it is choking off the RF coming down the cable. (acting as a choke balun)

Also, I am very good with TV and FM, if you would like my $.02, go to fmfool.com and post your results online (it auto hides your address for you too) and list what stations you wish to get decently.
 
I've used that tool before and all of the stations are between 35' and 75' from my location (Pretty much all East). I was thinking about a Yagi, but they were so big that I didn't think it would fit in my attic. They're all about 10 miles away, but I live in a very hilly area.
 
I've used that tool before and all of the stations are between 35' and 75' from my location (Pretty much all East). I was thinking about a Yagi, but they were so big that I didn't think it would fit in my attic. They're all about 10 miles away, but I live in a very hilly area.

I would go for the Antennacraft FM6 in a heart beat given your situation. Your omni has no gain (or even negative gain) in any direction, and this yagi has a good amount of directionality, without being HUGE. I lock a bunch of HD radio (HD runs 10x less power then analog) signals at 73miles with one 10ft off of ground at home.
At 10miles, you should darn near be able to drop a mountain in between you and the broadcast towers and get good signals with a decent antenna.
 
I might be able to squeeze a 6'x6' FM6 up there, but it would have to be pretty low down in the attic space to fit.

Anyone in the market for a barely used Omni-directional antenna? :D
 
Today I had a crash course in the differences between

1: GFCI Plug
2: Tamper Resistant GFCI Plug
3: Tamper Resistant Weather Resistant GFCI Plug.

Unfortunately my teacher was the electrical inspector. Ah well... Replaced them all (another $150 down the tube) and he'll be back tomorrow to hopefully pass the job.
 
Sounds painful but since you were just schooled in GFCI plugs, care to share with the rest of us what the difference is between those three? :D
 
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