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The Second Most-Common Mistake Made by Geothermal Designers

HeatingHelp
HeatingHelp Administrator Posts: 688
edited January 2019 in THE MAIN WALL
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The Second Most-Common Mistake Made by Geothermal Designers

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Comments

  • NilsBird
    NilsBird Member Posts: 1
    What is a Slinky pit? I ask because i'm wondering if I can install a horizontal ground loop around and under a septic tank and field that would heat or nearly heat a 3000 sq ft house in Quebec. A slinky pit sounds like the inside of a septic tank.
  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 16,904
    edited January 2019
    seems like having a good survey of the type of soil and any ledge or rock would be the first thing to check into. Test boring I guess. yeah, I'd like to know what a slinky pit is as well
  • Brewbeer
    Brewbeer Member Posts: 616
    edited January 2019
    Slinky pit:


    It's a shallow ground loop, for some sites it less costly vs. drilled holes.
    Hydronics inspired homeowner with self-designed high efficiency low temperature baseboard system and professionally installed mod-con boiler with indirect DHW. My system design thread: http://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/154385
    System Photo: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021738/uploads/FileUpload/79/451e1f19a1e5b345e0951fbe1ff6ca.jpg
  • GW
    GW Member Posts: 4,896
    I’m a soso geo fan. Our electric rates are about $0.22 per kWh here in Massachusetts. If you have natural gas, fugetaboutit. I have a system at my home and my office/shop. That compressor simply gobbles juice. I’ve done math with total watts and temp rise and cfm (variable speed/ trustworthy cfm numbers). I run my wall hung nat gas system in winter.

    One big concern, many geo installers don’t install enough loop. Antifreeze and back up heat galore

    Slinky—- not super ideal unless you want to get the job done quickly and you have a bigger pump to install.

    Gary
    Gary Wilson
    Wilson Services, Inc
    Northampton, MA
    gary@wilsonph.com
  • SuperJ
    SuperJ Member Posts: 609
    edited January 2019
    Slinky’s often pull too much heat out of too little ground and end up with low pressure faults are poor end of season performance.
    It’s not just how much pipe you have in the ground, it’s how much much ground you have around the pipe. They have their place but the loads and geology of the ground have to be considered.

    I disagree about the same energy on different loops with the same flow and temperature. Required pump power can vary significantly with different loop designs and is often overlooked and can add up significantly over the course of a heating season.

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