Comments for Alternate Energys, Inc. http://alternateenergys.com Geothermal Heating • Cooling • Hot Water • Solar • Wood Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:12:20 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Comment on Geothermal and Hot Water Baseboard Heat – Don’t Do It! by blue overture http://alternateenergys.com/geothermal-and-hot-water-baseboard-heat-dont-do-it/#comment-53 blue overture Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:12:20 +0000 http://localhost/~shannonjohnsen/alternateenergys/?p=176#comment-53 Rick, You are quite right about the hydronic radiators being a problem with the lower feed temps of solar. However, there are some new radiators coming from Europe that have a much larger area and are designed for a lower feed temp. In addition, hydronic floors are usually designed for fossil-fueled feed temps (160 / 180 degrees) and the tubing is spaced accordingly. If you wanna go solar or geo with radiant floor, the tubing needs to be spaced much closer, like 4 to 6 inched to really perform. This little item is overlooked almost everywhere. With closer spacing this will mean more days that you will be able to heat with solar only and not have to go to your backup, with geo heat pump, this means that your COP will be much higher. I plotted out Carnot's efficiency theorem regarding heat pumps and looked at the effect on COP that reducing feed temps will have. The difference in performance of a degree or two lower feed temp seems like it would be pretty small, but with regard to heat pumps, the difference in COP is rather large. This seems to be pretty well known in Europe and not so well understood in the US. -blue Rick,

You are quite right about the hydronic radiators being a problem with the lower feed temps of solar.

However, there are some new radiators coming from Europe that have a much larger area and are designed for a lower feed temp.

In addition, hydronic floors are usually designed for fossil-fueled feed temps (160 / 180 degrees) and the tubing is spaced accordingly. If you wanna go solar or geo with radiant floor, the tubing needs to be spaced much closer, like 4 to 6 inched to really perform. This little item is overlooked almost everywhere.

With closer spacing this will mean more days that you will be able to heat with solar only and not have to go to your backup, with geo heat pump, this means that your COP will be much higher.

I plotted out Carnot’s efficiency theorem regarding heat pumps and looked at the effect on COP that reducing feed temps will have. The difference in performance of a degree or two lower feed temp seems like it would be pretty small, but with regard to heat pumps, the difference in COP is rather large.

This seems to be pretty well known in Europe and not so well understood in the US.

-blue

]]> Comment on Poor Geothermal Installations by brenda http://alternateenergys.com/poor-geothermal-installations/#comment-4 brenda Wed, 03 Aug 2011 16:32:07 +0000 http://localhost/~shannonjohnsen/alternateenergys/?p=172#comment-4 Hi Tony, Give our office a call. We would be happy to review the installation and talk with you. Hi Tony,

Give our office a call. We would be happy to review the installation and talk with you.

]]> Comment on Poor Geothermal Installations by Tony Strauss http://alternateenergys.com/poor-geothermal-installations/#comment-2 Tony Strauss Sat, 30 Jul 2011 00:28:19 +0000 http://localhost/~shannonjohnsen/alternateenergys/?p=172#comment-2 I have had my suspicions if my geo system was installed right, but I am patient and I trusted. Then they took 2 days to completely go through it more then a year after it was installed and rewired it. Blower never shut off in the air-conditioning mode. I was told that the employee that hooked it up was an idiot and no longer works for them. But he also said that the system will only work in single stage for cooling. It takes a lot longer to bring the house down to temp and run cycles are also longer. I suspect this was the cause for my electric bill increase around the same time frame of the rewire, but that is hard to prove. This also made me wonder why I purchased a two stage system. They also never offered my the 10 year warranty. I thought I got it but fine print says furnace only. Not quite sure why they didn't offer it to me, I had purchased 2 other warranties from them for other equipment. It turns out now that the warranty would of come in handy with the junk compressors Geo comfort installed in their units. 4 years old and I need a new one. This brings me to you. I would like a honest assessment of my geo comfort unit and suggestions for fixing and improving reliability. Thanks I have had my suspicions if my geo system was installed right, but I am patient and I trusted. Then they took 2 days to completely go through it more then a year after it was installed and rewired it. Blower never shut off in the air-conditioning mode. I was told that the employee that hooked it up was an idiot and no longer works for them. But he also said that the system will only work in single stage for cooling. It takes a lot longer to bring the house down to temp and run cycles are also longer. I suspect this was the cause for my electric bill increase around the same time frame of the rewire, but that is hard to prove. This also made me wonder why I purchased a two stage system. They also never offered my the 10 year warranty. I thought I got it but fine print says furnace only. Not quite sure why they didn’t offer it to me, I had purchased 2 other warranties from them for other equipment. It turns out now that the warranty would of come in handy with the junk compressors Geo comfort installed in their units. 4 years old and I need a new one. This brings me to you. I would like a honest assessment of my geo comfort unit and suggestions for fixing and improving reliability. Thanks

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