Putting MERV 13 Filters on a Mini Split Heat Pump (An Easy Way)

All right, I'm going to show one way to put a filter on a mini split system. So, this is a shed that we converted to be conditioned storage, semiconditioned storage, because we are constantly buying stuff for our future projects. And uh here in West Virginia, things rot and mold really easily. Uh we just left our son's stroller on the front porch and it had mold growing on it pretty heavily in two weeks just sitting outside. So, it can be pretty gross here and we don't want to have a bunch more stuff ruined. So, uh, insulated and air sealed this shed. Um, no, we're not putting anything over the fiberglass. I'm breaking rules here on the building science perspective, but, uh, whatever. It'll be fine. We're just trying to keep it relatively warm and relatively dry so bad things don't happen. Uh, but what I'm going to do is I'm just going to take this MV 13 filter. Uh, there's actually I got a box of four of them. Uh, I'll show where to get them. It's from Tex Air Filters, my friend Jim Rosenthal. And this is an inexpensive filter. It's 10 bucks a piece. And all I'm going to do is seriously tape them to the top of the mini split that's on the shelf there. And this will drastically extend the life of your system because man, they do not have a good filter on them. And the blower wheels tend to get gked up and full of mold after a couple of years. So, this is really going to help keep it clean. So, you could use this for a shop as well. My shop has the same setup. That's where I did this first. Uh, but we will dive right in. All right. For starters, here's what the install looks like as it stands. So, we just left the fiberglass in here. We're not planning to cover this. Uh, but that leaves me with an issue. Like, I don't want to put this filter right up against that fiberglass because it's going to be able to pull up and through from behind. Uh, and I don't want it to do that. So, all I'm going to do is take some cardboard and extend this up a little bit. And then just gonna use blue painters tape and put these in. So this is not an exotic process, but you want to make sure that it is well sealed on all the sides. So you got to seal the sides and then you got to seal the back. Um, and all I do is tip these on like a 45°ree angle or so and tape them up. This is again, this is not like a perfect or professional solution, but this is a storage shed. Um, I don't need perfect and professional. I'm perfectly capable of doing that, too. That's not what this job calls for. So, next step, I will get some cardboard up there. Okay, cardboard and tape is up for the width of the mini split. Note that I taped this joint here. That's really key so I don't pull air from the wall cavity into here. We want it to pull all the air through the filters. Speaking of filters, I don't know if you can see the crummy little mesh that's in here. It's like what you get in air conditioners and things like that, a window air conditioner. This is really good for stopping rocks and small children. That's about it. Um, it will let a bunch of dirt through and get the coil dirty inside. And then also the fan. This is the coil right here. You can't see the blower wheel. It'll get noisy here because I'm putting in the airflow. The blower wheels up there. You want to uh make sure that you keep the garbage out of the system. And this is one of a couple of things that can make your mini split last a really long time. So, next up, I will put the filters on. Okay, for starters, I just have them dry fit. See that these three are across and the actual place where it intakes is not quite that big. Uh, so that's going beyond where it needs to on that side. This side, it's not nearly so far over, but I'm giving it quite a bit of filter area. And I tested the last one. It was not a problem with creating a bunch of restriction for the unit. I will uh post a screenshot on here. The reading was quite low. Not something to worry about. All right. A quick note on the side panels. Um I uh just kind of dry fit this in here. See how it catches the edge of the plywood that's sticking up there? And then I just use this. Actually, this is the one that I I cut. Um, I just use it as a template to make another one for the other side. So, quick little time saver. All right. And she's all taped up. So, got cardboard on the sides, taped in, taped to each other, taped all the way around the edge. And note this little hose sticking out over here. One thing that you might be worried about is is this going to create a bunch of pressure on the system and potentially make it fail early. So, there's that end of the hose. Here's the other end. This is my retrotech uh monometer from blower door. And this is an extremely accurate tool. But note the 0.0162 63 um that is inches of water column. That could be as high as probably about 0.08 before I'd really start to worry. But under uh 002, I'm just not worried. This is very unlikely to give you any maintenance trouble. Plus, um, those filters that were in there that I showed you earlier, that's going to get gummed up and create higher pressure than that once it starts getting dirty. So, this is kind of a nice way to uh do a I don't know, not a very fancy job that uh will still be effective. Okay, first off, I just want to highlight that we air sealed. So, all of the little joints and cracks in here that we could get to, we sealed up so that we reduce how much dirt and garbage comes in. Also, pests and other things. Uh, note that I have Emporia smart plugs here so I can time when both the mini split and the dehumidifier that I'll show you in a moment uh run. Uh, so that's really nice. Uh, I have time of use at home, so I actually just have the dehumidifiers there run at night from 9:00 a.m. to, uh, 7:00 a.m. Uh, but you can do whatever you want with those, but these also track energy use, so you understand how much power you're using while you're doing things. Uh, MISA thermostat is nice for scheduling and also data logging, understanding how much the system's running. Um, this is a Intermatic surge protection device. So this helps protect the system from power surges which is a really big deal with inverterbased equipment. And then down here we have a mini split running and also you can see the surge protector or mini split a dehumidifier running so that we can keep this place fairly dry so that things don't rot in here. Okay, I hope that was helpful. So there's the filters up there. That's one of the biggest pieces to making systems last longer is keep the dirt out of the systems, which a good filter can do. Another thing I didn't mention in this is vacuuming the system down is also really, really important. So, the refrigerant lines that are going to and from that system and then out to the outdoor unit that's out here. You want to get all the garbage out of that and that's best done with a vacuum and getting it to very, very low vacuum levels. So, I got this one down to 43 microns. uh industry standard is less than 500. So I got 10 times better than that for this one. So fingers crossed this system along with the surge protection should last a very long time. Uh if this sounds curious and interesting, uh I will drop a link. I'm working on what I call the common sense at track guide, which shows you what systems to buy and how to ask to have it installed so that it actually lasts a long time and also makes your house much more comfortable and hopefully healthy if done right. So, take a look at the link downstairs and thank you for watching downstairs. I don't know, you know the drill. Click the bell, click subscribe, and I'll see you next time.