I had a geothermal heat pump installed in late 2012 and have had a few issues. Once the system didn't work at all and it turned out water had dripped onto the control panel and it had to get replaced. Another time it shut down and the HVAC tec said all the pressure was gone from the ground loop so he hooked up a water facet and filled it to 65psi. A few times the geothermal said the system was frozen so they had me click a switch on the control panel. Since the beginning my AC bills have been very high. I live about 45 minutes north of St Paul, MN so I am surprised by this. One month my bill was 400 dollars and they charge 12 cents per kilowatt hour during summer. Last month it was 300 bucks and we didn't ever go over 90 degrees. How can I find out what is causing the high bills? In winter my bills have never gone over 400 hundred dollars and my winter rate is 9 cents per kilowatt hour My installer refused to put any pressure or temperature gauges on the unit and said they were not needed. Now they won't even return my phone calls. I chose the installer because they had good references and had installed hundreds of ground source heat pumps over the years. Seems like that was a big mistake. 1) Where you live 30 miles north of St Paul, MN 2) Heat loss/gain calculations for your home Ill look for a copy but cant find one yet 3) Brand, size (model) and type of heat pump Econar Cold Climate 048 ALS EC (4 ton unit) with no heat strips 4) Type of loop field (open/closed/vertical/horizontal) size and design parameters slinky loop closed 5) Average cost/Kwh of electricity and consumption winter 9 cents per kilowatt hour summer 12 cents per kilowatt hour 6) Entering and leaving air temperatures (EAT, LAT) measured immediately upstream and downstream of the heat pump no idea no temperature gauges installed 7) Entering and leaving water temperatures (EWT, LWT) measured at the heat pump(s) No idea no temperature gauges installed 8) Percent of load to be covered by geo and balance point We used 68 degrees for both summer and winter and 100 percent of load covered by geothermal 9) Installers assessment of your systems operation. Installer refuses to check the system 10) Projected operating costs, actual operating cost and previous heating and cooling costs no idea about winter since we bought home and installed geothermal before winter in summer we had 4 window ac units and our total bill never was over 250 dollars Thanks in advance for the help if you have any additional questions just ask.
I live in St. Paul (homeowner). I can provide you with the names of a couple of companies that could assess your system and possibly help with repairs. Looking at Econar Geosystems facebook page and the BBB listing for Econar Energy Systems it looks like the company may be out of business and you are not likely to get any assistance from them (though you may want to contact other unhappy homeowners who have posted on the facebook page to see if they've made any progress or are taking any legal action). https://www.facebook.com/pages/ECONAR-GeoSystems/132918980539
My understanding is that Enertech purchased what was left of Econar and Hydro Delta from Research Products. Your symptoms are unusual. And a little unclear i.e. "A few times the geothermal said the system was frozen so they had me click a switch on the control panel." Did someone say your loops were frozen or did you have a fault code such as "freeze protection 1" and when you say "click a switch on the control panel" do we mean reset the circuit breaker or .....? Do you have an un powered intermediary tank between the Marathon and the geo? It's interesting that your electric bills are higher in the summer. Could there be any other contributors i.e. pool or hot tub that you didn't have last summer?
It is difficult to use up $300 in A/C and $400 for heating with a 4 ton system. Is this your entire bill or just your geo portion. 68F thermostat set point, both winter and summer?
