Heat pump

A heat pump is an excellent idea for our trailer so we ordered one. Well, it sounded like a good idea at the time.

I decided to do most of the installation myself and then get an HVAC guy to come to hook it up, test it all out and sign off on it. Wrong idea! After I did my part of the installation I started phoning around to get someone to do the job, with absolutely no luck! They only wanted to work on it if they had sold us the unit. One guy said he would look at what I’d done and give me a price for cash. He said he would call me back, but after several days with no callback, and after several calls from me, I gave up.

I was getting very frustrated, so after checking out the installation instructions, doing some YouTube videos and consulting with Rosalie, we decided I could do the job myself. It would void the warranty but that was better than seeing it sitting there and slowly rusting away.

The next day I got on to Amazon and ordered a bunch of specialist tools that I mostly sent back when they weren’t needed, and then went to see the guys at pub day trying for a little sympathy. Yeah right!

The electrical wiring was a challenge. I envisaged running conduit under the trailer and up through the floor to the electrical panel where I had a spare breaker. Unfortunately, because of the way the trailer is built I couldn’t get through the floor. So I had to find another way. I got lucky because when the guys screwed up the wiring when we first got our rig, they left an unused circuit right above where I want to put the outdoor unit.

One of the things I needed was thread glue for the coolant pipes. I ordered from Amazon for two-day delivery and later I checked the tracking and it said delivery from 1oth -11th October. I cancelled that one. In the meantime the guy who said he would call me back, finally did. He was very helpful and when I said I could do it myself, he gave me lots of advice and encouragement. He’s English of course. According to him, the warranty isn’t that good anyway.

After consultation with my plumber brother-in-law Gordie and visits to several hardware stores, I finally got some sealant from Andrew Sherritt in Parksville. And so the rest of the installation began.

There are two parts, the inside unit and the outside unit. The most difficult was inside because we have very little wall space to put it. I eventually solved the problem and as it happened the location we picked made the piping easier.

The outside unit was much easier. The only danger through the whole thing was if I managed to put a kink in one of the pipes. I got lucky; that didn’t happen.

Then I had to hook up the vacuum pump that I’d ordered, which was a bit of a mystery until I really got into it and finally figured it out. Again, with help from YouTube.

Initially, it looked as though I had a leak so I took the fittings apart and redid them. On the next attempt, the pressure held and I was ready to go. Now for the really scary part. I released the coolant with a baited breath and waited. Nothing, which to me sounded good.

I went back into the trailer and holding my breath, turned on the power. Beep! So far so good. Next, I ran through the testing procedure and everything worked just fine. I did a final leak test and declared it installed.

At first, I thought it wasn’t working as it runs so quietly. Even the outside unit has just a slight hum.

Anyway, it’s done now. But remember, if you need help installing a heat pump, please don’t call me.