O'Fallon, MO results tracking.

Here's our results for July 2011

July 2011: 553 Cooling Degree Days, 1208 Kwh
July 2010: 439 Cooling Degree Days, 1356 Kwh
July2009: 317 Cooling Degree Days, 1286 Kwh

This July was the 4th hottest ever for our area. My personal weather station recorded 1 day of 101, we had 18 days over 90, a mean temperature of 82.8.

We made it through this month with no 2nd stage cooling with our little 2 ton geo,(and 2 contractors bid 3 ton units ) came close several times, usually the sun would get a bit lower and the temperature would follow.

Hard to pinpoint a savings for the month with the extreme heat, I would say ~500kwh under our old unit, this would be about $50 for the month. Our buffer tank has been above 100 daily and on the warmest days it has been just over 110.
Our electric provider just enacted a rate increase yesterday. 7% increase, that makes for a 34% increase over the last 4 years.....So the fight continues and payback comes faster....

 

I have a couple of questions.

What do you use for a personal weather station? I hope to some day do one that can record wind data at my location for future wind turbine.

Is your KWH usage for the whole house or just the heat pump? seams high for just heat pump.

How are your EWT's after long runs w/heatwave?

Thanks, ChrisJ

 

I have a Davis Vantage Pro 2, I have had cheaper stations in the past with very short lifespans. (less than 1 year)

Usage is for the whole home, all electric with 2 adults, an 18 year old and a 10 year old.

Yesterday during a 5+ hr run in first stage(103° high temp) my EWT was just over 78°.

My weather station data can be seen here: O'fallon, MO Weather 63366

 

Really nothing to add as far as the Geothermal system goes, just that it is working as I had hoped. Our average monthly usage has dropped 880 kwh since the installation. This is comparing the 7 months before the install and 16 months since.

The good news is that it has dropped our electrical usage low enough now for us to consider solar. We have signed a contract for a 7.9 kw array to be installed on our house within the next 8-12 weeks. It is estimated to cover 70% of our homes usage from 2011 which was just over 13000 kwh. Software puts the output at 9100 kwh/year with the claim that the software is typically underestimating output. Last January/February we had well below normal temperatures, summer didn't let us down either with above normal temps for the June-August time frame. Some minor adjustments in usage along with a son that will be living on college campus starting next week and hopefully we can come close to net zero as possible. We are installing Enphase M215 inverters with a monitoring system, this will allow easy expansion in the future as the system is very plug/play oriented.

 

Summary for the 3 months of meteorlogical winter:

2011/12----3703 kWH, 2408 heating degree days
2010/11----4279 kWH, 3186 heating degree days.
2009/10----9466 kWH, 3328 heating degree days. Old heat strip furnace

After a mild winter our unit continues to impress. We struggled with electric usage in Dec/Jan as my college age son took a lifestyle change of staying up all night and having many friends at the house. That all changed as he moved on campus the end of January.

The results for Feb. showed, 988 Kwh for the month, with just 721 heating degree days.
With the mild weather loop temperatures dipped into the high 40°'s.

Our solar PV project is on track to be complete before the middle of April.

 

Not a direct Geo post, but our Geo system has decreased our energy usage enough that we have followed sunnyflies tracks and moved forward with solar.
Our 7.65 kw solar array was installed this past week! This is estimated to produce 9000+ kwh each year, which would have covered ~70% of our 1100 kwh/month usage from 2011. I think we can meet 80+% coverage continuing with some changes we made to reduce usage recently.
System consist of 30 panels and microinverters, panels are Solarworld 255's and the inverters are Enphase M215's.

 

That's excellent!
Did you get a lease or financing?
I looked into it last year and it was very expensive like 35k before tax credit for about the same size system. State of RI has nothing for incentives, so there are no lease programs available, like they have in near by MA.

ChrisJ

 

looks great

 

Our electric provider has a $2/watt refund, then they offered an additional refund that will total another $4800-$4900. Of course the 30% federal rebate.

Total we will have just over $13,000 in the system when done. I did a 1 year same as cash deal, electric rebates are in 30-60 days and I will have the federal rebate back before the payment is due. At that time I will pay the system off.

It will cover our total usage April-August/September, with a little luck another month or two. November-January will be the low production months, I will just have to buck up and pay the bill.

Doing everything I can, our electric provider has raised rates 33% over the last 4 years and have requested a 14.5% increase this year.

 

Similar Systems

Tstolze,

We have very similar systems - My home currently has a 4-Ton Geo-comfort system that was installed back in 2006 when the home was built - I have lived here since Jan 2011. We recently installed 23 Solarworld 245watt Mono w/black frames along with 23 Enphase M-215 Inverters. I'm curious about what direction your solar panels are facing? Looking at enlighten you make real good power into the evening. My system is facing Southeast or right at 154 degrees azimuth. System was commissioned on 5/10/12 and as of today I have made a total of 2045KWH - During this time period or since the net meter was installed on 5/10/12 I have only needed to pull 350KWH to date from the grid - not too bad considering how hot it has been.

 

Brian,
Apologies for the delay, don't get by here as much as I should.

Our system faces due west. My TED(energy monitor) bricked on me earlier this month and I just replaced it this week, so I don't have good details for the month of July. I did check the meter a week ago and we were dead even for the month.

In May we produced 1230 kWh, 300+ kWh more than we used, June was 1290 kWH ~230 kWh more than we used...I am very happy at this time!

On the Geo front our little 2 ton unit continues to plug away, we did hit 2nd stage cooling a couple weeks ago on a day at 104...The whole family was getting ready for a night out during the heat of the day, so 4 showers with the exhaust fans running and loading of the car with food/coolers....Can't complain, we had highs earlier on in the 107 range, came close to 2nd stage but never kicked in..
Loop temperatures have been in the upper 70's during the height of the heatwave and after the long evening runs.

 

can i ask how did your GEO install? I need to have someone look at mine (im in festus, mo)

also who did your solar I'm looking at 2 10KW systems for my house

 

Air Conditioning St. Louis | AC Repair St. Louis | Heating St. Louis | Furnaces | Advantage Air LLC did my Geo installation.

My solar install is better discussed in private, very happy with the final results, the rest of the story was a nightmare. Send me a pm or email me at "insert my username here" @gmail.com

 

Long time since I visited...figure it's time for an update...

So we made it through last year with using just 12093 kWh's of electric....this is our actual usage and isn't taking our solar production into account.
This is down from 25084 in 2008....Now last Winter was very mild but the summer was extremely hot with a recorded high of 108°..
We have now made it through this Winter with less than 6 hours of stage 2 run time, for the Dec-Feb time frame we consumed a total of 3465 kWh's of electric...Incoming water temps that were in the mid 70's at the end of last summer have only dipped into the low 40's this year and have recovered to 45 during long runs already.
Our solar array is coming out of the Winter slump producing just over 34 kWh's today, so far since May 1 last year we have produced 8210 kWh's....

 

Well..looks like it has been just shy of two years since I posted, and this made me go back and realize our system is approaching 4-1/2 years old....things keep operating as expected. Where has the time gone?

Our Geo unit continues to chug along, we had some very cold nights for our region last January hitting minus 9 one night and minus 5 the next. 2nd stage was used heavily and our thermostat called for the heat strips for the first time ever other than testing. Of course mister scrooge here, I have the breakers off for the strips, so the blower kicked up along with the desuperheater shutting down allowing the unit to recover without the strips.

1-1/2 years back I installed an air-air add on heat pump water heater from Nyle, and we continue our fight to conserve electric as our provider continues with rate increases, nearly 50% in the last 6 years with a possible 10% increase coming this year.

We continue to drop our total electric consumption, down to 10,276 kWh's last year(down from 25,000 just 6 years ago), then 9175 kWh's of solar production which means we produced ~89% of our electric last year. Our average bill last year was $28/month, vs $30/month in 2013.

Hope everyone here is doing well and hope I have helped others with their GEO decisions!