Mini Split for 22 degrees?

[amosshock]

Hello,
I have a Daikan r410a minisplit in my tiny house (200 square feet with loft). It can keep the house warm from like 50 degrees outside, but if the weather is under 30 outside it can only get it up to like 42.

Does this mean the mini split is broken, or just isn't made for weather below freezing?

[Don_P]

Or the heat loss is greater than the unit can put out or than it can put out at that temp. 200 sf, that certainly sounds suspect on the surface of things though. Apples to watermelons but ours was not keeping up when it was 3 outside a couple of weeks ago, but that is rare and she seemed to take the trips to the woodpile in stride. I'm sure the unit is fine, I sized it too small for those infrequent snaps (actually I bought it for summer but it tends to make me lazier with regards to burning wood.) Unless your place is a sieve I can't imagine any unit not keeping up in that space, light up their tech line.

At 200 sf, if it is sealed/insulated/on grid a $20 electric heater using way more than that in power will get you through those days.

Aside, I did see this year's version of PFM electric heater a few weeks ago... "pure freakin magic", this tiny plug in wall mounted thing will heat a home to 65 in minutes, uh-huh .  Electric resistance heat is all the same as far as watts in and heat out ... whether it is light bulbs, oil filed radiators, ceramic, or wall mounted baseboards. 1 watt = 3.4 btu's.

Buy the cheap one if you go that route... and then factor in running it. There is no more expensive way to heat as far as cost per btu. Most of the plug in electric heaters use 1500 watts on hi and put out around 5000 btu's. For comparison my small jobsite propane torpedo heater blows thru about 10 gallons of propane a day and puts out about 50,000 btu's

[LessieHoeger]

If your minisplit cannot increase the room temperature above 42°F when it is below 30°F outside, it may not be suitable for cold climates or need to be checked for maintenance.