It has been almost a year with my NEW Geo. I track my electric usage for every months and comparing to my previous home I am doing OK (little better than OK but not great). The system is Heat Controller HTV 036B1C01JLK, 3-ton 3 heat/2 cool. House is 2000 sq ft Ranch with full finished basement so the total Heating/cooling space is about 4000 sq ft. We have 3 vertical wells at 200 - 225 ft each (totaling about 1200 ft of vertical pipes) + about 100 ft of horizontal pipes at about 8ft below ground that connected the pump to the header. House temperature is set at 70 degrees heat and 75 degree cool. House is 100% electric. We have 1 hot water heater tank so I disconnected the DSH on 7/15/14 (closed the valves) because it seemed to use more energy than it can produce. The first 3 months the system used a lots of electric so my average bill for those 3 months is about $190/month. Many Experts on this site had suggest the problem and I passed that on to the installer. The pump we have is an oversize pump for 3-ton system so he turned one pump off (from a twin pump system) and it seems to work much better. After 12 months the average monthly electric bill (for heating/cooling/hot water/appliances...+everything else) is about $150. I think this is OK (could be better) for a 4000 sq ft home with 5 people. What do you think? I attached the Excel file I use to keep track of monthly usage. Thanks.
Help me with this spread sheet. Is the before and after, the year before without geo and after is the consumption with geo. It looks like you are simply subtracting to figure out what the geothermal is using? I caution people with this if they do not normalize for weather or other outside forces, such as someone now with geothermal keeps their house warmer now, cooler in the summer, or small things. For example, I had one customer put an addition on and did not account for that in usage of the electric, someone i had built a workshop and did not factor in tools for woodworking..etc...
This is BRAND NEW house so no previous usage. I have to record my own meter readings then submit that number to the power company. We live on acreage in rural so the power company REQUIRES us to record our own meter readings (or pay $35 for them to do it). The meter reading starts at 5610 KWH because the builder used that much of electricity during their construction period and they paid for that when we closed the house. Every month I take the different between the BEFORE and AFTER to figure out how many KWH we have used in that month. I have NO WAYS to figure out the portion the Geo used. I would LOVE to know how many KWH the Geo alone used, the Hot water tank alone used, and everything else used. Are there some tools that can help me with this? The numbers for my 12th month on the spreadsheet (last row) are the estimated numbers based on previous months. For 4,000 sq ft home with 5 people living in it, ALL electric....I think with $150 average monthly bill is good enough. Do you agree?
That is Good! What do you pay per KWH? My heat-pump has it's own electric meter mounted next it. The manufacturer supplied it. Chris
Are there any "shoulder months" or even "shoulder weeks" when you could turn the geo off and measure your Non-geo usage just as a swag? I'm like Chris, I have a separate meter for geo-electrical use.
It looks like the cost of KWH for Colder Months is Cheaper than Warmer months since we are in Nebraska so people use more natural gas for heating and more electric for cooling period. The total bill is calculated as follow: 1st 200 kw is $0.1148/kwh Next 800 kw is $0.0977/kwh Additional kw is $0.0938/kwh I might try to do the "Shoulder weeks" just for a WAG like you suggested since I do not have a separate meter for the GEO.
How do I get this "Hour Meter" to work? Clam/insert it into the circuit breaker? I have 3 (three) 220v lines for the furnace. 1 is for condenser, 1 is for L1 & L2, and 1 is for L3/L4. What brand/model do you recommend? Thank you.
Yikes! You need an electrician. You can get a meter base at any good electrical supply house. They may have meters, too. Mark
maybe the wel data logger? I like data loggers, its nice to look back and see a trend and figure out whats happening. Otherwise Mark is correct you may need a electrician. You could run 3 meters, or 1 meter for all. But with this type of meter you almost need to record the readings often to really know whats going on.
You can use something like Efergy or The Energy Detective. They use clip-on sensors that you attach to your main lines and log your consumption.
Who did you use for your geo install? We are in process of building in Valley NE and starting to get bids? Thanks in advance
