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Honestly, I would recommend just doing it yourself. Especially if you have a contractor pull in the electrical connection for it. I installed a pre-charged unit

Honestly, I would recommend just doing it yourself. Especially if you have a contractor pull in the electrical connection for it. I installed a pre-charged unit in a much more complicated attic setup (condenser mounted to outside wall on second floor, 20' of refrigerant lines run with lots of angles) and the whole thing took 6-8 hours with no experience. Mounting it to a shed where you're basically just cutting a hole in a wall and the indoor unit and outdoor unit are in more or less the same location should be extremely straight forward. The unit cost me less than $1k five years ago and has been running perfectly ever since.

lstodd 1mo ago
Pulling in the electrical connection is actually simpler. So you might as well do that yourself too.
- pwg 1mo ago
  It is, but you'd be surprised at the number of folks who will DIY stuff, but won't DIY anything electrical.
  - krn1p4n1c 1mo ago
    Insurance won't cover it if you're found to have non-code electrical as the source of a fire. Electricians are expensive, but it's worth having one inspect your work to correct/teach you the approved install method.
    - lstodd 1mo ago
      So you do it according to the code or better. No cheaping out on components, no shoddy work. Insurance won't revive you or your loved cat either.
      - krn1p4n1c 1mo ago
        Ideally yes. For me I found following the code difficult. Then compound that with needing to know the NECA <https://www.necanet.org/topics/codesandstandards/neis/the-standards https://www.necanet.org/topics/codesandstandards/neis/the-st...> + the state codes. It's non-contiguous in the way it's written so you need to know the relevant sections and how to apply them together. Simple things add up; proper color coding of wiring, knowing how much sleeve to leave in at the edge of a box, what cable nuts are appropriate size for the number of wires bonded, size of box needed based on number of wires, how/where boxes can be mounted, space between EMT in bends, what size bus-bar is appropriate and what can share it.
        lstodd 1mo ago
        To the first approximation you have to control thermal output of your wiring. Since it's I^2*R, you have to size your wires according to max sustained current, take into account thermal conductivity of where your wires are placed and keep all contacts tight. Also size circuit breakers according to that max current so they trip before the whole thing catastrophically overheats. Which is a trivial exersize in itself. Short-to-case and leak current protection (the reason for three-wire systems/PE conductors and differential protection) takes second place. In larger installations there are also considerations about grounding / ground loops, but that usually does not matter for residential. This is what the most of the code should be about (I never read US ones, but was doing apartments/small homes for like 20 years already). The rest, as in colors, sleeves and exact connectors used is helpful, but not critical, and if you think that a typical contractor would not botch it up in a most horrible way, well..
    - LgWoodenBadger 1mo ago
      Your big assumption is that just because an “electrician” did it doesn’t mean they did it following the relevant code.
chasd00 1mo ago
if someone finds out you did this yourself then can't the city put a lien on your property preventing a sale until you rip everything out and have it re-done by a licensed person? I know with electricity whether you do it per code or not a licensed electrician has to sign off before you can sell your house. at least i think that's how it is..
- senordevnyc 1mo ago
  I mean...what are the odds of that? And if it does happen, it sounds like a hassle, but the overall cost in that scenario probably isn't THAT much higher than having the licensed person do it in the first place? Sure, if the odds are 50/50, or you go to jail, or the fines are $50k or something, then yeah, do it right from the start. But if there's a 2% chance of getting caught, getting caught costs you 150%, and not getting caught costs you 10%...the choice is pretty obvious here, isn't it?
  - deleted 1mo ago
    [deleted]
- ghaff 1mo ago
  Barring very obvious problems, I think you're way overestimating how deeply either home inspectors or town/cities are going to be deeply inspecting (especially older) properties and/or permits. My property is over 200 years old and a lot of the work on it has been licensed but there is doubtless a lot that is older.
- Kirby64 1mo ago
  > I know with electricity whether you do it per code or not a licensed electrician has to sign off before you can sell your house. at least i think that's how it is.. Where? No electrician is inspecting every house that goes up for sale in the US. Sure you can ask an electrician to inspect a house electrical… but that doesn’t bar a house sale anywhere I’ve ever seen.
  - pwg 1mo ago
KPGv2 1mo ago
I think the plumbing is by far the hardest part. Electrical is pretty easy. Hard to screw that up. But if you screw up the refrigerant lines, they will leak over time, and your machines will not only stop cooling and the motor will burn out, but HVAC personnel who are licensed to buy refrigerant and re-charge your lines will refuse to work on DIY lines because they then will incur legal liability. I installed my own and paid an HVAC company to very my connections were good, and when it came time to release the refrigerant into the lines, the guy told me I had to do it for legal liability reasons.

lstodd 1mo ago

Pulling in the electrical connection is actually simpler. So you might as well do that yourself too.

pwg 1mo ago
It is, but you'd be surprised at the number of folks who will DIY stuff, but won't DIY anything electrical.
- krn1p4n1c 1mo ago
  Insurance won't cover it if you're found to have non-code electrical as the source of a fire. Electricians are expensive, but it's worth having one inspect your work to correct/teach you the approved install method.
  - lstodd 1mo ago
    So you do it according to the code or better. No cheaping out on components, no shoddy work. Insurance won't revive you or your loved cat either.
    - krn1p4n1c 1mo ago
      Ideally yes. For me I found following the code difficult. Then compound that with needing to know the NECA <https://www.necanet.org/topics/codesandstandards/neis/the-standards https://www.necanet.org/topics/codesandstandards/neis/the-st...> + the state codes. It's non-contiguous in the way it's written so you need to know the relevant sections and how to apply them together. Simple things add up; proper color coding of wiring, knowing how much sleeve to leave in at the edge of a box, what cable nuts are appropriate size for the number of wires bonded, size of box needed based on number of wires, how/where boxes can be mounted, space between EMT in bends, what size bus-bar is appropriate and what can share it.
      - lstodd 1mo ago
        To the first approximation you have to control thermal output of your wiring. Since it's I^2*R, you have to size your wires according to max sustained current, take into account thermal conductivity of where your wires are placed and keep all contacts tight. Also size circuit breakers according to that max current so they trip before the whole thing catastrophically overheats. Which is a trivial exersize in itself. Short-to-case and leak current protection (the reason for three-wire systems/PE conductors and differential protection) takes second place. In larger installations there are also considerations about grounding / ground loops, but that usually does not matter for residential. This is what the most of the code should be about (I never read US ones, but was doing apartments/small homes for like 20 years already). The rest, as in colors, sleeves and exact connectors used is helpful, but not critical, and if you think that a typical contractor would not botch it up in a most horrible way, well..
  - LgWoodenBadger 1mo ago
    Your big assumption is that just because an “electrician” did it doesn’t mean they did it following the relevant code.

chasd00 1mo ago

if someone finds out you did this yourself then can't the city put a lien on your property preventing a sale until you rip everything out and have it re-done by a licensed person? I know with electricity whether you do it per code or not a licensed electrician has to sign off before you can sell your house. at least i think that's how it is..

senordevnyc 1mo ago
I mean...what are the odds of that? And if it does happen, it sounds like a hassle, but the overall cost in that scenario probably isn't THAT much higher than having the licensed person do it in the first place? Sure, if the odds are 50/50, or you go to jail, or the fines are $50k or something, then yeah, do it right from the start. But if there's a 2% chance of getting caught, getting caught costs you 150%, and not getting caught costs you 10%...the choice is pretty obvious here, isn't it?
- deleted 1mo ago
  [deleted]
ghaff 1mo ago
Barring very obvious problems, I think you're way overestimating how deeply either home inspectors or town/cities are going to be deeply inspecting (especially older) properties and/or permits. My property is over 200 years old and a lot of the work on it has been licensed but there is doubtless a lot that is older.
Kirby64 1mo ago
> I know with electricity whether you do it per code or not a licensed electrician has to sign off before you can sell your house. at least i think that's how it is.. Where? No electrician is inspecting every house that goes up for sale in the US. Sure you can ask an electrician to inspect a house electrical… but that doesn’t bar a house sale anywhere I’ve ever seen.
- pwg 1mo ago

KPGv2 1mo ago

I think the plumbing is by far the hardest part. Electrical is pretty easy. Hard to screw that up. But if you screw up the refrigerant lines, they will leak over time, and your machines will not only stop cooling and the motor will burn out, but HVAC personnel who are licensed to buy refrigerant and re-charge your lines will refuse to work on DIY lines because they then will incur legal liability. I installed my own and paid an HVAC company to very my connections were good, and when it came time to release the refrigerant into the lines, the guy told me I had to do it for legal liability reasons.