"The Good of the Land" goes into detail about how inexpensive and easy it is to install a MrCool Multi-Zone ductless mini split in his shop. Check out the MrCool Multi-Zone Mini Splits here.

Initial Installation of the MrCool Multi-Zone Mini Split

Today is a huge day for me. It's a day I've been dreaming about for like 30 years. I'm going to guide you through the steps of what it takes to install your own air conditioner, and show you and prove to you that it's not that expensive, and it's easy. Stop working in the heat! The building is a standard steel construction. I did install a fan, but this is going to help you pull the hot air down. This in conjunction with the air conditioning system really helps to circulate that air. You don't want that hot air sitting up top and you don't want the cool air at the bottom, you really want to mix the stuff around. We went with the MRCOOL Olympus series, and two 24K heads. The cool thing about this MrCool Multi-Zone system is that you can actually run more than one head off of a compressor. In fact the compressor, or the outdoor unit that I have can actually run up to five different zones. You could literally install this in any room in any house the you want. You can cool multiple different zones with one unit. Incredible. When you're cooling an area that's this large or this poorly insulated, it's going to take a huge amount of power to run a unit to cool this. An electric bill in my zone would be about $300 per month because you're drawing an insane amount of amps. But this is where the inverter technology comes in. An air conditioner on the outside of your house is either on or off. There's nothing in between. That's not an efficient way to operate an air conditioner. What you would like it to do is slowly spool up just enough to get to the desired temperature, both in the compressor and in the fan unit. These MrCool Multi-Zone mini splits don't require big capacitors to store energy for startup for every five minutes. They stay on, and they stay operating, and they maintain. So, as opposed to the $300-$400 per month to cool off this place with a traditional unit, after doing the math, I'm going to be spending more around $80-$100 per month. That's something I can live with. If you are unfamiliar with the electric, just step away and let a professional do the work. What I did was run a 50 amp circuit and I've got it run through armor cable all the way out to the back. When you're out working on the unit, you want to be able to disconnect the unit from the disconnect box. That way the guy who is working on it doesn't have to go inside your house. In a traditional system what you would have is this huge massive ductwork as well as an air handler. It's a massive unit. Instead, we just have two light boxes with air handlers in them. With the wires, we have a black, a red, a white, and a green. The only one I really want you to focus on is the green because that's going to go in the ground. We have three more wires. Which one to we put where? The colors don't matter until you choose a spot, then you know where the wires go outside. Then comes the part where you need a professional for charging the system. Or, if you have the tools, you can do it yourself. I like to have a professional, so that if there is any problems, he's going to know what they are immediately and it's going to save me time and money.

MrCool Multi-Zone Ductless Mini Split Installation Followup

So, I've had the MrCool Multi-Zone mini split unit installed for about a month and I've been doing some testing. This is a 1,200 square foot shop and the peak is about 15 feet. The side walls are 12 feet. It has about three inches of insulation on it. I think it could be 120 degrees in this shop and I could get it down to 65 degrees. So, for the first unit, I set it for 60 degrees to 70 degrees. For the second unit I just leave it turned off. The good thing about this is I'm running it on like a quarter throttle. It's barely even operating. It's just keeping up with the heat loss through poor insulation. That has saved us a ton of cash. I'm actually spending a little less than I thought I would. So, if you have a shop this size, it's actually a 30x40, and you've got the same basic insulation that I have, you're not going to have any problem running an MrCool Multi-Zone 18K BTU unit or a 24K BTU unit if you want to kick it up a notch.