We added a mini Split

We sold our home in Tennessee and moved to Texas in December. We knew the weather wasn’t going to be extremely cold but there would still be some cold days. So, in preparation for our baby's arrival, we were adding a more reliable heating source than a space heater.

We decided to add a mini-split. A mini-split is pretty much a tiny ductless central AC and heat unit. Most parts of the world use these units for heating and cooling needs.

When looking for a unit, we wanted the highest SEER number we could comfortably afford which was also 120V. The higher the SEER number, the more efficient the unit is at heating and cooling. We found a good unit on amazon with a high SEER and a great price that we bought it!

Idilio began installing it once it arrived. He had the unit up and was getting ready to run the wires when we realized we bought the wrong voltage unit. So we had to return it and get another unit that was 120V, we double-checked and quadruple checked before we purchased it that time.

So with the new unit, he was able to complete the wiring, inside the unit installation, and outside unit installation. But then an issue arose when he tried to connect the plumbing from the inside unit to the outside unit. The copper tube broke and then he went to buy some tools to flare the connectors and he was never able to get the air compressor vacuum to work. He needed to buy an adapter to get it to work.

By that night, he was frustrated and tired of trying to get the unit to work. After all, we thought we still had a month until our baby was going to arrive to get everything set up. My grandma and I told her to take a break, it was dark he just needed to quit for the day. You could see the frustration in his face trying to explain the problem he was having. He also thought he left his cell phone at my grandma’s auto mechanic shop earlier that day. Idilio decided he would stop working on the mini-split for the day and go get his phone.

As I lay in my grandma’s bed watching TV with her, my water broke! Luckily, Idilio hadn’t left yet and was in the bathroom. Off to the hospital we went for Klay’s arrival.

A week later, Idilio found someone on Facebook that works with mini-splits and was able to come out and fix the copper plumbing and the unit. We typically like to do all our work ourselves to save some money but this unit needed to work properly to keep our baby safe and we were eager to get back to our tiny home. So for $150 of labor work, we were able to add heating and cooling to our house on wheels.