Minnesota Happy Thanksgiving and the start of my testimonial thread!

Last year at this time, I was unsure that I'd ever be able to start a thread like this, but here we are. All I can say is it takes a village!!

This morning the temperature outside was a balmy 5 degrees, and the temperature in our dining room (where our disconnected thermostat hangs) was 70 degrees. Our new 7 ton 5 series Waterfurnace was humming away. Our Phoenix 80 gallon water heater which is both our back up heat and our buffer tank has been unplugged for 2 weeks and so is just acting as an unpowered buffer tank.

LWT from the geo unit is 128 degrees...we can probably adjust that down once the DanFoss valves that we ordered have been installed on our 16 radiators, so that the geo doesn't have heat all 3 floors of our house to the same temp. (Note to installers: it matters what direction the water flows through the radiators when you install TRVs....our installer didn't know that and our flow is "backwards" on all but 2 radiators, resulting in a lot of rework).

We are heating only with the hydronic heat, and will use the 5 ton Carrier split and SpacePak (and dining room thermostat) for air conditioning in the summer). We gave the 3 ton Carrier high temp unit away....there was nothing wrong with it except that it didn't fit into the plans for our ideal system. The pump pack is on it's way to ACES to be used for training. All is good! I have a lot to be thankful for, that's for sure. Should have the WEL up and running soon.

 

I knew your home could be fixed when you first posted. I am thrilled to see this post and your timing is great.

I wonder how an ECM drive pump helped with the solutions.

Happy Black Friday Tamar.

I've been married to an empowered woman for 31 years Wednesday and have two great daughters. I feel your fight and am glad you are winning.

mark

 

Tamar,
Allways good to hear the results of a dificult journey are worth the trials and tribulation along the way!
Congrats!
Eric

 

Looking forward to hearing EWT/LWT as we've maintained for some time that the loops were adequate.....congrats.

 

One thing I didn't realize in all the education I got here was how quickly the loop would recover if the call for heat was satisfied for even a few hours.

 

If you don't mind can you share your experience with the Wel data logger? and Installation of it.

Its something I have great interest in doing.

 

Although this says it's stickman, it's really Tamar

Andy, I'm the furthest thing there is from a DIY'er. A contractor installed my WEL.

I seriously considered the GXTracker from Ground Energy Support, as I really like the user interface and delivered reporting on the web. GES offers web based installation videos that seem pretty comprehensive.

I went with the WEL because that's what my expert had experience installing and using. The most important thing for me was/is to have a reliable way to monitor how the geothermal system is performing.

 

One of the best parts about the WEL is no subscription fee.

 

It is so much fun to watch my system in action. This morning it was -11. The balance point on the Tekmar is set at -5, and that's about when the Phoenix started introducing small amounts of gas-heated water into the system. The fact that it's -11 this morning is crazy, but we are warm and cozy.

 

That is great to hear.

Would you share your WEL address with us?

ChrisJ

 

http://welserver.com/WEL0891/

My buffer tank IS my Phoenix boiler. Typically power to it is off, but on particularly cold mornings like this morning you can see the buffer tank temp goes above the Load Out temp. This is (sometimes) an indicator that the gas is coming on intermittently to slightly raise the temp going through the load. I think the sensor between the buffer/geo and the radiators reads a few degrees low. Also the house sensor is in our dining room, which has a big east-facing window, and often reads a bit cooler than the rest of the house in the morning (we have DanFoss valves, so other rooms are individually controlled).

 

Did the air flow issues get fixed on your split system?

I think you said once it needed re-working.

ChrisJ

 

Yes, the airflow was completely reworked. The new company increased the plenum size that circles the third floor and added 6 addititional ducts throughout the house.

 

Hey, Tamar, just decided to check in and see if you'd posted recently. Great to hear you finally got the system working. You just can't beat radiant heat, and in theory, Geo and cast iron should be a happy combination. And you shouldn't need scalding temperatures to do it. Not many people would have had the patience to see it through. After years of dawdling I'm moving ahead with my own system, before the tax breaks expire. We'll see how it turns out.

 

My Xcel bill trend from the website. Granted, 2014 was the polar vortex, but this is still fun to look at (this is combined electric and gas):

 

Great improvement!!

I'm not sure of your winter of 2015, but mine here in New England was worse then 2014.

Your not making chilled water for a/c right? You have a water to air split system for air conditioning. Any WEL sensors going on that unit?

ChrisJ

 

Chris,

There aren't any WEL sensors on the split, but you can see when the air conditioning is running based on the source EWT/LWT. It got up to 85 degrees yesterday so the air actually came on several times.

 

Looking good this morning! Just had to share this snapshot from right now.

 

awesome!!!

 

We're having our first below -0 temps since last February, and geo is running like a charm. I just plugged the water heater/buffer tank in a few days ago and it's just starting to inject a little heat now and then. The house is so much more comfortable with the Danfoss valves on the radiators than when we had to crank up the heat to have it heat the whole house.

The key for us was good design and a unit that can, when needed, get the water up to 150 degrees. http://www.welserver.com/WEL0891/