Finished the install on the Geo Heat Pump Thursday. Which means I valved the Natural Gas out. I have to call and disconnect next week. No more CO monitor or worry about the heat box going out.
The big delay finishing this was getting a heating contractor out to hook up the duct work. He has been busy since before Christmas. I wanted it to look good and I can't bend metal the way they can. Very nice guy. He even went back to the shop and got me a better thermostat because he thought the one I got was not good enough, he was right. He has never installed a Geo unit, though this is the second unit he has done duct work on. He then called me at 9 pm that night to make sure my wiring went OK and I had heat. He seem surprised that it was working, I must have instilled some confidence in him.
Pump is running well. I will not say good because I picked a cold week to do the change over. The emergency Electric coil has run a lot. The outside ground loop is still eliminating air, and my setup to do this was not as effective as I thought. So, the compressor keeps kicking off, which means it isn't producing enough heat to keep the house warm, hence the emergency coil. I got some plumbing parts yesterday, I hope to get it straightened out. Of course 6 degrees C will be easier to maintain than the -4 C it has been.
Very excited, it runs more often, but is very quiet compared to the old furnace. Looks prettier in the basement and is half the size of the old furnace.
3 comments:
Do you have any photos of this? I'd be interested in seeing it. How low can the temp be without the emergency coil having to run? I'm pretty clueless with regards to this, but intrigued.
I'm very curious to hear the reports on this as it progresses.
I'll think of it every month this year as I pay off my new boiler...ugh!
Have made some improvements, of course the ambient temp is up 15 to 20 degrees.
Took air out of Ground Loop with a piece of three inch PVC pipe connected to a "T" in the line with clear tubin (used clear so I could see when to add fluid). I had to add 3 gals. of fluid (total of 70 gals in Earth Loop). Elimination of this air has made the pump run without the emergency coil kicking on.
Rewired the blower fan to the slow speed instead of medium (came defaulted to medium). The air flowing out of the register was 78 degrees F on med. and is now 81 degrees on slow. House temp is set to be 67, and is very comfortable.
That puppy can extract some heat from the fluid. Monday morning the outside ambient temp was 22 degrees. The fluid in the Earth loop was 40 degrees coming into the heat pump and less than 30 degrees leaving. The brass nipple out of the unit had frozen condensate on it. The piping is all black plastic so the condensate on that was just real cold.
I have realized when it gets cold the earth loop temp. starts to lower quickly because you are extracting so much heat from it. It appears to not drop below 40degrees coming out of the ground, but I did not expect this. Also, with constant running the temp does not get back above 50 degrees. Interesting, I believe my loop is big enough, it just needs some down time to get the fluid up in temperature.
I will try to get pictures to explain a little more.
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