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Community and Q&A

Minisplit with wood stove

user-794432 | Posted in Energy Efficiency and Durability on

I am heating a small, tight, well insulated home in central New Hampshire with a wood stove and have Mitsubishi mini splits to fill in when wood stove is not being operated. The house is super insulated and passive solar warms it well on sunny days. The wood stove is nearly always being actively tended during winter. It’s easy to keep the house at 75ºF running the stove at low burn. The mini splits are set at 65ºF, yet they are always running circulating air. Admittedly I’m a little obsessive about minimizing un-needed electric loads, and the units do not produce heat when temperature is above the 66ºF setting, but they are always “active” moving a small amount of air even with fan “off”. Likely a small electric draw, but not needed. Mitsubishi and the installer recommend always leaving the mini splits “on” and indeed doing so prevents the system from becoming confused and not running properly when needed. Is it ok to just turn the units off when the wood stove is in continuous operation (sometimes for many weeks), or should I just accept the small amount of electricity used to run the fans on low? They do help keep the air mixed…

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Replies

  1. natesc | | #1

    I think the idea that turning off a minisplit will break it or "confuse" it when it's turned back on is completely ludicrous. Does this also mean between assembly at the plant and installation at the home there is only a brief window before the circuit board blows?

    I would say ours is turned off 2/3-3/4 of the year. We also heat with wood and I have found that the combination of a mini-split with woodstove is perfect.

    Our Mitsubishi hasn't gone crazy from being turned off yet, if it does, then good riddance.

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