learn geothermal heating systems

realolman

I am an industrial mechanic who recently moved.  My new house has geothermal hot air heat .  I installed and maintained my last house's heating system (oil - hot water) , and I knew pretty much everything about it...



I know zippo about geothermal heat, but I feel as though I need to learn fast, because everything breaks sooner or later, and I can't stand the thought of not knowing how to fix or maintain my heating system.



I have googled the stuff, but seem to only be able to come up with the most simplistic of explanations... can someone recommend something I can read to gain some realistic technical knowlege on the subject?



thanks

Mark Eatherton

Whose systems is it?

I'd recommend starting with the manufacturers O&M manuals. It would also be helpful to know if you are dealing with vertical bore holes or horizontal loop fields for the heat source.



What is your general impression of the comfort conditions delivered by this air based system? I've heard that the discharge air temps can be rather cool, and if you are near a terminus, uncomfortably cool...





ME

TonyS

Climatemaster

Here is a link to their website http://residential.climatemaster.com/owners-area2 just pick a unit and they have the install manuals and owners manuals in PDF.



I have a water to water unit in my home, there is not much to them, just a heat pump that uses ground water instead of outside air on the condenser( kinda like spraying the garden hose on the condenser in the summer).



I had a call on an old steam boiler the other day in a commercial building. I noticed the old air conditioning unit for the front store, It looked like a gas warm air furnace but the only thing running to this unit was two half inch copper lines, So I followed the lines, one to the water meter and the other to a drain. Here the thing is just an early geothermal unit using city water. Water must have been cheap back then! Nothing new under the sun I guess.

Jean-David Beyer

When I lived in Buffalo, NY, ...

"So I followed the lines, one to the water meter and the other to a

drain. Here the thing is just an early geothermal unit using city water.

Water must have been cheap back then."



When I lived in Buffalo, NY (I left about 1965; we got our water from Lake Erie, which was nearly drinkable in those days), we did not even have water meters. The city knew the size of the water pipe to the house. They may have known how many toilets, sinks, bathtubs we had. That determined our water and sewar bills.

Gordy

Tempid Air

 Is the word I have heard used to describe it Mark.

realolman

the air is not very hot

especially at first...after it runs a bit its not bad though....I think that is partly a seperate problem ....   ducts in an unheated basement... I have a some  work to do insulating and whatnot.  The house is generally pretty warm... not quite as cozy as my old oil - hot water house, though...  yet.... I'll get it insulated like it shoud be and then see. 

but therein  is yet another story... we haven' t lived here very long .... leary as to what it's going to cost;  we only have it set at 68 and we only got one bill for 11 days.  For those 11 days we are on pace for a $206 electric bill and our average electric bill was probably around $110 at our oil heat house.... If it turns out that that is what it costs it's gonna be much cheaper than oil.  . 

It,'s a Trane command-aire.   I already read the manual .. didn't get much outta it, 

Has vertical bore holes..

At the risk of side tracking my own thread, I knew a guy who's grndfather had a gas station back when, and he used city water to force the gas outta his underground tank to sell to customers, and then when he started getting water, he stopped selling gas and ran the water down the sewer, and then got the tank refilled.  Imagine doing that today... somebody'd hang you   ... rightfully.

realolman

submitted post twice somehow

It's no disgrace to be dumb but its unhandy as heck/