Hi Everyone, I am a GC, just built a new home for my family. Installed a WF 5 ton dual stage air unit. Enertech's design software said 420 vertical feet into granite would work, I have 2 wells at 230 each for a total of 460. System running all the time in winter. EWT is 30 degs , delta T is about 5-6 degs. Stage 1 kicks on, 21 mins later stage 2, 22 mins later W1 kicks on, 22 mins later W2 kicks on & runs for about 5 mins. Cycle runs for about 70 mins, off for about 5-6 mins then starts all over again. Dec power bill $ 770.00, 4400 kwh consumed. If I turn off breaker to elec heat what will happen? Any suggestions? Add a loop, can I add a horz. loop? System works fine in summer.
Hi, sorry to hear about your problem. It sounds like the heat pump is undersized. May be the loop as well. If your EWT is 30° you are not out of loop capacity yet, but you are clearly about out of heat pump capacity. If you shut off the aux heat, the unit will run in 2nd stage longer, maybe continuously with out ever reaching the set point on the tstat. It won't hurt the heat pump and it will save you some money, but your house might not be as warm as you like. Where do you live? On a side note: I didn't know that Enertech had a design program, what is it called and where did you get it? Hope this helps
In a standard WF (Envision) installation, the air-handler fan is powered from the same breaker as the electric heat -- that's so you'll still have air flow if the heat pump fails and the compressor breaker trips. I believe there's a DIP-switch on the processor board that disables "emergency heat" except in the case of a true emergency (e.g., compressor failure). Looby
That's exactly where i am at using about 130KwH/day! I also have a WF 5 ton, only difference is 3000ft horizontal looping per the recommendation of EN of 600ft/ton. I have done the above suggestion and flipped the dip switch on the board so as to not use aux, and yet my electricity consumption is still cranking the same! So interesting - same unit, different looping - so could one do an "elminate the looping" from the equasion as we have similar results yet totally different looping and say that our issue is may with this specific model??? Out of interest, can you tell me what model thermostat from WF you are using??
Di2009, I have a Geocomfort GT064 HP, it is made by WF, it is a 5 ton unit. RobertShaw 300-202 T stat. The HP is controled by an EWC EZC4 control board. I called EWC and spoke to rep who designed board, he had me check board, & I found out that the factory default setting was set up to call each stage of heating every 21 mins. That is because it is shipped for single stage heating & cooling. It was 0 degs at 8 AM, he told me to turn off the staging call. I usually keep T stats at 68 degs, no set backs. The HP now was not calling for aux heat at a predetermined time. First stage aux heat came on a few times & ran for awhile. I have since set my t stat for set back at 66 degs. I am only one at home now. HP is working great, maintaining 66 degs on 1st stage HP only for the last 4 hrs, it is 12 degs out right now. I am considering disabling the aux heat using the dip swithes. Hope this helps. Thanks to all who replied.
Question - as i can't access my board to see what's it's set up as, do you think I could achieve similar results to your for now by changing the "Differential" on my thermostat to 1 degree diff between Stg 1, 2 and aux calls?
t stats This is one of the most common install errors that I see. Todays t stats are so programable that the t stat itself can create the afore mentioned condition by doing things with the stages and auxillary heat that you are not aware of untill your first horrific electric bill. Another common error I see is with climatemaster units being set up from the factory for open loop, and the installer not cutting the jumper when it is installed as a closed loop. Hope this helps Eric
