An Update on our GeoThermal

[Qweaver]

Our electric bills for the last 3 months are $96, $97, $99.  That's for a total electric house, motor home plugged in and used frequently as a "guest house" and lots of showers and cloths drying running the water heater, 2 work sheds and lots of saws and tools running almost daily.  This has been an unusually hot summer and the AC has been on 24/7.  Last summer we hardly ran the air at all.  We had a birthday party with 45 people last week and the doors constantly opening and closing and the HVAC keep it at 72 deg with no problem.
So we are very happy with the geo unit.

[submarinesailor]

SUPER!!!!!!

[Al_Smith]

Yes they work very well .I have a 5 ton unit myself but because of other things the bill is a tad higher than yours but a lot cheaper than an air to air unit .

[RickF]

My sister has a geothermal unit on her house and they pay a lot less for their air than ours. I've thought about either getting a geothermal unit or get a grid tie solar power system. Just imagine if you had solar or wind power, I'm sure your electric bill would be even less.

[Al_Smith]

Your sis will have a lot lower heat bill too .They are as good a heater as they are a cooler .Kinda hard to beat the cost of operation unless you live in Louisiana and own a gas well .

Fact is since the hurricanes have disrupted the weather it's kind of chilley  during the evening and I had to switch mine from cool to heat  . Mrs Smith said it was getting nippley .I didn't mind but evidently she did .

[scsmith42]

Any idea of the energy consumption differences between a well system versus the deep trench system?

[submarinesailor]

Any idea of the energy consumption differences between a well system versus the deep trench system?

There shouldn't be.  But it MAY require a little bit longer tubing/pipe for the heat sink.

Bruce

[Al_Smith]

I doubt there would be much difference .On a loop system they use a little recirc pump,like a Grundfoss or some other brand and of course on a well you have a water pump .On either depending on the water temp you need about 5-6 gallon per minute flow rate for 5 ton .

The big diff would be the installation .In these parts it takes 400 to 700 feet of lateral pipe per ton on the loop piping .I figured aprox 2800 feet in my case .That's a lot ot trench .

[thecfarm]

Would be a lot of rocks,at my place, too.     

[Al_Smith]

It really doesn't make any difference what the water source is along as there is plenty of it for heat transfer .A well,pond ,river,lake ,deep well bore coil ,horizontal trench .

They all work ,just depends on what's available .

[Qweaver]

My first plan was to use trenches because I had the backhoe to do the work.  But when I looked at the amount of trenching that I had to find space for I decided to have wells drilled.  I also believe that wells are more efficient.  Several people in the business agreed.

[Al_Smith]

I find that to be true also .

The first unit I had was a Hydra-Delta made in Monroville Pa .It was a used unit which I had to revemp so it would work .The engineer from that compnay was extremely helpfull and  he said they work better on wells .

Water furnace evidently is an off shoot from Hydra Delta from what I'm  told and is popular in this area which is why I chose it for the replacement .Simpley for repair parts should they be needed .

I installed both units myself .I imagine however had a heating contractor done the work and had I been totaly ignorant of how they work  then most likely they'd have tried to talk me into a trench system at about 7 to10 bucks or more a foot .They say I was born at night,just not last night .

[sesmiths]

Glad to hear your system's working well.  We're also having a geothermal system put in, hopefully some time in October.  A back injury this year took me out of the heating with firewood business...this year's wood is still out in the woods  .  In my area, a geothermal system, even with the high installation costs, is a no-brainer over throwing money at oil heat (no natural gas option here).  I'm looking forward to having an evenly heated warm house for a change...when we heated with oil, we kept it too cold, when we heated with wood, we struggled to move the heat around.  It was never ideal, but it was cheap.

[Al_Smith]

There a couple of methods they used with a well system .One uses two or more wells where the water is dumped back into a hole once it's used and the wells alternated .

Unfortunately because of the laws of hydraulics you can't get all the water back in the hole.

Where I work has a gigantic system the uses two 5 acre quarrys as a water source .Spring fed and 90 feet deep the water on the bottom is 39 degrees .Local ground well water such as I use is around 53 degrees .

That system would handle the entire over 2 million square feet of building but because of environmental concerns with warming of the water it also has a huge refridgeration systm incorperated into it .

These system weather  a small unit on a house or a huge industrial system work very very well providing there's a source of water .My thinking is these will become more utilized in the future .

[Qweaver]

For some reason the heat cycle is less BTUs than the cooling.  I don't remember the exact number but it was someting like 28000 btu cooling and 24000 heating.  The heating capacity was right at the edge of what we needed on the really cold days but any more would have required another well.
 Now that I've been talked into closing in the downstairs it will not be enough to keep the bottom rooms really warm.  I'm just going to put in one outlet down there.  It's just storage and mechanical space anyway and 50deg will be fine.  With the bottom closed in and insulated, it will be easier to heat the upstairs anyway and it may balance out.  We will have a pellet stove down there if needed when we have guests down there.

[Al_Smith]

That's a relatively small unit .It's pretty much standard that the cooling capacity wiill be larger than the heating, they're all that way .

The upside is as with all refridgeration if the system is running at max output it in essence is the most efficient .Sounds odd perhaps but true .

You have to size them for the greatest  load ,heating or cooling .In my area that would be heat .They make multi staged units with a series of larger units built in .They costa plenty though ,like a whole nuch more .I'm not so sure the pay back would equal the up charge figured over the life expectancy of the unit which averages 18 to 20 years or there abouts .