geo thermo

Patrick Mullaney

I just completed a geothermal retrofit in my primary residence 10 days ago, although not for radiant (it is a forced hot air system). Looked at a few Green options and this was the best for me since my only fuel source at my home is electricity. I was consuming about 30,000 Kwh per year, most attributed to my 1988 heat pump with a SEER rating of 10. My new Waterfurnace Envision series has a SEER rating of 38. Total project cost was just under $20k. It is an open loop system. The air quality and uniform temperature in the house is amazing. When Janaury rolls around, we will see how it really performs.

Needless to say, we are extremely happy with the path we chose.

gary bettcher

geo thermo

Anybody use Geo thermo with radiant infloor, whats your thoughts on it. Thanks

[Deleted User]

Yup...

If its use is taken into consideration at an early stage, and the hydronic designer is allowed to help decide what types and kinds of flooring and floor finishes go into the home it can work well.

It works best with WarmBoard for upper framed floors.

Figure on tighter centers in the tubing when used in cement.

Figure on using the state of the art insulation materials. THese are some EXPENSIVE btu's, and if you can conserve them in the construction/design part of the project, you can keep the size of the physical plant small, thereby saving money on that part.

Figure on a maximum availability of 115 degrees F water temps, unless you are wiling to also install an back up system with the ability to go higher (hybrid).

Figure on the system costing 2 to 3 times as much as it would normally run to install.

Figure on it costing less than any other system to operate.

Figure on lessening your carbon foot print on the face of the earth.

ME

Tom_35

Absolutely

What Mark said. We have installed 20 or so earth coupled systems and they perform incredibly well.

We just finished a custom home that was under construction for nearly 3 years. We have 6 ECR geothermal systems in it and it worked flawlessly last winter during construction.

The control system utilizes Tekmar controls and is really nice. It has auto-changeover from radiant to forced air in the event that the radiant is not keeping up due to a sudden cold snap. When the stat is satisfied, the heat pump goes back to heating the floor. The controls also rotate which pump is the lead and which one is the lag so that the heat exchanger well doesn't get overused.

As Mark said, expect to use more materials, and a lot more labor, but the end result is worth it.

Tom Atchley

jp_2

mark?

how about a water furnace, 1/2 pex in 1.5" gypcrete, spacing around 13 - 15 inches???? pump and dump, heating guy told me 8 gpm, him and his helper just shook their heads in disaproval, but thats what the 'designer wants(northern mich, design temp maybe zero to 5 F.

my gut says the new owners of this expensive house aren''t going to be really happy.

i tore out a gypcrete install that was 12" on center, too many cold spots for a tile floor.

Patrick Mullaney

5-ton Envision Waterfurnace

My 5-ton is pulling 10gpm in Stage 2 and 8gpm in stage 1. Stage 1 is about 70%-75% full capacity.

Mark Leuthold

geo w/ infloor

We have been doing radiant floor coupled to ground source heat pump equipment since 1990. We have been blessed with outstanding results. Sure, the upfront costs add time to projected paybacks, but from a comfort standpoint, our customers could not be happier. We have 1 1/2" USG Levelrock poured over tubing on wood subfloors and pour 3 1/2" concrete in basements and garages.

Design it right, and the phone calls from contractors and potential homeowners will abound.

GREG LAUER

We are using geothermal infloor to heat our sheetmetal shop in the new addition at our shop. It wont be done for a while the tubing was just laid and should be poured tommorow (weather pending) but it is infloor system/in concrete and we are using Hydrodelta units we have seen many and these are a great unit and the only problems we have had with them is avaibiity. Apperantly we are not the only contractors who like them.