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Community and Q&A

Basement MiniSplit Sizing

Vinvega81 | Posted in General Questions on

Hi,

I received some quotes on Minisplits and the sizing is very inconsistent so hoping to get some help on sizing. Attached is the layout of the area.

– Its 650 square feet in the basement with about 83 feet of perimeter wall exposed.

– I live in North Pennsylvania.

– The basement ceilings are 7 ft and the walls are mostly subgrade.

– I have insulated the wall with 2.5 inch thick Foam and the floor is unisulated, upstairs is a heated area.

– The coldest is gets in the basement with no heat is 45-47 degrees in the winter.

– There are 2 windows and 1 door to the outside.


I am not sure I am doing the heat loss calculations correctly. Any help or guidance on sizing is appreciated.

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Replies

  1. Expert Member
    Akos | | #1

    I would run your place through one of the on-line calculators (ie loadcalc.net). My guess is that any 9k wall mount will already be over sized for the space, so you can pretty much install the cheapest unit that has a base pan heater. A 6k hyperheat is probably a closer match.

    Especially with the baseboard backup in the bedroom, most likely even a budget non hyper heat 9k unit will work.

  2. Vinvega81 | | #2

    OK,
    I tried to run it through but am not getting any heat loss for my basement floor for some reason. Its un-insulated and 6 foot below grade but coming up with zero. Attached is what I completed. Any thoughts? Seems like the slab should lose something.

  3. Expert Member
    Akos | | #3

    You are probably missed selecting the basement wall and floor type on the previous page.

  4. Vinvega81 | | #4

    Yep, that's what it was. Thank you for pointing it out. Coming in right around 8,000 BTUs for heating. So the quotes for 15K indoor units would be far oversized. Even the 12K unit quote I received would be oversized. Would it be better to go safe and get the 12k unit or get a 9k? Pricing is not much different.

  5. Expert Member
    Akos | | #5

    Depending on which units they quoted. This is pretty much spot on for your load. Don't forget you also have the baseboard heat to supplement, so there is really no need for over sizing. A right sized unit will work better for de-humidification in the summer time which is important for managing RH.

    https://ashp.neep.org/#!/product/25907

  6. Vinvega81 | | #6

    Akos, thanks very much for your help on this. Will go with your recommendation.

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