I am going to have a new home built next year and I am really wanting a geo thermal system. I am located in central ohio. The house is going to be 2300 sq ft ranch with an unfinished basement. I have one quote already and am waiting on another. Just wanted to see if anyone can tell me if the system looks like it is sized correctly and if the price looks decent. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks! -Waterfurnace Series 3, 4 Ton w/ variable speed fan motor and hot water assist. -Waterfurnace 15kW Aux Heat Unit -2 Waterfurnace pumps with insulate flow center -Digital auto change over thermostat. -8 350' loops, excavating and rough grade -Insulated fiberglass ductwork -18 supply registers -7 returns -2 basement supply registers -2 bathroom vents -dryer vent -range vent through roof Total $19,670
good price, size is on target -I think the 3 series is not efficient enough - I would question the need for a dual pump flow center, you are paying the power consumption of the second pump. Your contractor needs to do a pressure drop calculation. - How deep does he put the pipes? - I do not like fiberglass ductwork, for air quality reasons
I did some quick research and found that the 3 series is 22.3 EER, the 5 series is 28 EER and the 7 series is 41 EER. Not being familiar with EER I'm not sure how significant the difference is or what the price difference is. My quote was not broken down item by item. The quote says the horizontal loops will be 6' deep. Im assuming that the dual pumps are to move the liquid through the horizontal loops? I will have to ask to see why he thinks I need two. How does fiberglass ductwork affect the air quality?
http://ductworks.com/air-duct-clean...-liners-a-serious-indoor-air-quality-concern/ http://buildingincalifornia.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/FiberglassHVAC-InsulationHazards1.pdf I have seen duct board develop mold when they get moist. They are also impossible to clean. For Ohio climate, the heating COP will be more relevant and the cooling EER efficiency rating. The difference between 3 series and 5 series is about 8% in heating mode, 20% in cooling mode. Yes, the dual pumps are to move liquid through the loop field and the heat pump. You are paying for those pumps running for many thousand hours per year. A 4 ton system can easily designed with 1 pump versus 2 pumps by skilled installers.
From an northern Ohio owners perspective, I am using a 5 ton Climatemaster TZ22 with I think 6 slinky runs in the yard at about 6ft deep. My house is a 2 story 2700 sq ft colonial with an open concept. The middle of the home is completely open with 19ft ceilings (about 900 sq ft) so they bumped up to a 5 ton instead of the 4 ton on the ranch we were going to build, approximately in your size. I think there is about 3000-3500 ft of pipe in the ground in the slinky formation and my system is a single pump unit and works just fine but cost approximately $17,500 to have installed. The more efficient model, the TE30 was going to be about $2000 more. With us being more heat oriented in NE Ohio, the break even point of energy savings vs. upfront cost just want there to warrant the cost increase, probably a break even scenario. It would probably take 15-20 years to recoup that additional cost so I was not worried about it. I ended up adding the buffer tank and switched to the Climatemaster digital thermostat for control capabilities about 6 months into ownership so there was an additional $1000 I put into it. Did I gain anything out of the buffer tank, in the winter I did when I have longer runs to actually heat the water. Ohio has such mild summer temps that even at 72 degrees in the house in the summer, it cooled off so fast that the runs were kept short. Now, the biggest thing for my install was proper configuration! The system was installed and they did a decent job, but they didn't know how to configure the system to be efficient. My first 10-12 months were rough for two reasons, it was poorly configured and the ground needed time to settle. Once Mark and Stephanie helped me install the buffer tank and taught me how to configure the system with the new thermostat, it got a whole lot better. I am about a year and a half into ownership and I am seeing my bills drop by 33% from the same time last year. My home is all electric, has as sump pump that is very active, and has an aerated septic so no matter what I am burning electric even with everything off and the geo isnt running. My total bill for Oct was $125 and Nov was $165, compared to $190 and $235 last year with just config changes and settling of the ground around the in-ground loop. Oh, almost forgot, we had a 7-10% increase per Kw from Ohio Edison that started in June, so even with that increase, I am coming in 30% less than the previous year! So, very important: Dont oversize! Proper operational configuration after install! It gets better in year two once you have had proper ground settling!
Eric: Thanks. Waved at your place of work on the road today. I do not get how Ohio lets First Energy write it's own rates. I should run for John K's job or the Donald's. Mark
