HVAC advice for 275sf pool house
Climate zone 3, Northern California. Non-coastal, although significant morning humidity most mornings and nights due to ocean wind patterns. Buildjng has one BR and one bath, 2×6 walls insulated via flash & batt to nominal R28 (air sealed exterior w/ 3M 8067 on all seams), R40 closed cell foam ceiling. Heat and cooling load is pretty small… I haven’t run numbers but must be under 9K BTU even with 150sf of window and door glazing?
Was imagining a single wall-mounted mini-split, but finding one small enough isn’t easy. Then it occurred to me that you folks actually know what the best options are for heating and cooling this space. What would you recommend? The tile floors have WarmUp heating cables installed for comfort during the winter, if that’s a factor (and I do have solar to offset some/most of the spurious power use).
Appreciate your advice and/or questions,
Rob
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Replies
Is this already built, or under construction?
Really the first step is the calculate the load.
A small minisplit might be just right, or it might be too big. If it's too big, one idea is to consider if you have other heating and cooling needs you might be able to serve with an air-to-water heat pump that would serve several uses.
It's new construction, and a standalone project (other than the pool heater that won't go in for quite a while. Using Loadcalc, cooling is 3K and heating is 8K (slab floor and sliders, mostly - and I suspect it would be closer to 6K if I did a real detailed calculation.