Western NY Geothermal Install

Congrats on the new system...and thanks. The fact that you're putting it in now will almost guarantee an early spring, no matter what the woodchuck says.

 

HughesNet Satellite Broadband

The WEL basic kit is $555, we also get an Amp sensor which is around $40.

 

So it was a rough day, I assisted both the excavator and the installer. We were able to bury 3 loops with a total length of 450' each. We have two more 450' loops to do but the ground was so wet that we were fighting with it we had to give up for the night. Here is how the loops are setup, we go about 10' at 4' deep. Then we drop to at least 7' and 8' in other places.

We had to bed some of the pipe in sand as there were many sharp rocks and some shale and lots of clay.







They plan on finishing up the trenches tomorrow and prepping for the heat pump next week.

 

So what is this loopfield like? 5 x 450'? 2250' total? What depth? What size pipe?
Who is the contractor?

 

The geo contractor is a local guy, domestic energy resources.

And yes that is exactly what size the field is, 2250'

5 x 450'
Average depth has to be about 8'
Not sure on pipe size, I believe 3/4"

 

That all sounds inline to support a 4 ton system. The trench on the pictures with the guys in seems to be only 4-5 ft deep. After embedding the pipes in sand?

 

In order to make it safe to get into the hole he is required to peel back about 18-24 inches on either side of the trench. The picture is playing a trick, at that point we were at least 7 feet.

From what I gathered around here even 5 feet would be sufficent.

 

I can see the OSHA banking, I was just not sure how much it was.

5ft is cutting a bit of a corner. We are going down to 8ft, The difference is 3.5F, which you wiould be missing at the end of the winter.

 

Everything went well yesterday the last 2 loops went in pretty easily. After everything was back filled we blew through the supply side and got air out of the return side of each loop. The installer will be bringing the HP on 2/13 and finish up the install. We are pretty excited to get this all buttoned up.

We will finish dressing up the loop field this summer, they will be bringing a dozer in after it drys up.

We have had so many people stop and ask us what we are doing its not even funny.

 

I hope they pressure tested it and not just blew air through....?

 

The heat pump arrived yesterday and was moved into the basement this morning. We were delayed a little due to family illness and the contractor's workload. The installer is arriving first thing and the entire family is leaving for the day. He said we should be able to return to the house tomorrow afternoon.

 

Almost everything is completed, the contractor needs to button up a few of cold air returns. All of the old duct work was removed and new was installed. The unit has been fully functional since Friday night about 7:00 PM. It has been running on stage 1 every time I have looked at the thermostat. The temp is set a 71 and it is 70 in the house. This afternoon it got up to about 35 degrees outside and the system made temperature and shut down for about an hour then it ran for about 25 minutes and was off for another hour or so. I am really looking forward to some subzero temps.

A few observations,
-The EWT is 41 and the LWT is about 38, I checked this after the unit ran all night long. I checked it again a few minutes ago and EWT was 42 and LWT 38.
-I can barely hear this unit run, the old unit used to bang and creak the metal ducts when it started up. I actually have to look at the thermostat to see if this unit is running.
-The contractor put collar ties with dampers so he could balance the load. Anyone that has a unit installed must insist that dampers be installed for just this reason.



I have been removing the old registers, that were not replaced power washing them and hitting them with some paint. The registers look brand new.


For me the first 48 hours has been wonderful.

 

Congrats. Great to hear that everything went well so far. Keep us posted.

 

Agree that hand dampers on runout collars are very useful for balancing - they cost less tha $10 installed so are a no-brainer, although I don't specify them on runouts to large rooms I know will need max airflow.

 

The system has been installed for about 42 days. I got my first full electric bill, it was for 29 days from 2/22 - 3/22. Last year my bill for the same period was $122, this year it was $176. I have not burned my pellet stove and my oil furnace is not hooked up.

The system works great. I could not have heated my home for $54.00 with oil or pellets. And I do understand that it has been much warmer this year than last, But I still feel I am saving money.

 

Not to mention you no longer have to load and clean your pellet stove.

Congrats!

Z

 

Yea cleaning the stove is not that big of a deal but I sure do love the house always being 70 or 71 degrees in my house. Today was really funny because I got a bill from my old oil company for a "Bronze Cleaning Package" including filter it was $150 + tax. It also says it will be past due in 10 days.

I will give them a call in the morning and explain life to them.

 

So the avoided cost of the "Bronze" maintenance call will heat your house for 3 months? How cool is that?!?!

 

We called the oil company today and said we don't use fuel oil anymore and the furnace is unhooked. So please reverse the charge on our account. Then they asked what we switched to and we said geothermal. The lady laughed and said she would reverse the charge.

They must really be hurting after this winter to be sending all of there customers bills for $150.

 

Update:

My system has been operating about 4 and 1/2 months. It has worked flawlessly in both heating and cooling modes.

Here are my electric energy numbers since the install,
February-12 2012 1319 28 $5.15 $0.11 $144.15
March-12 2012 1698 29 $6.01 $0.10 $174.19
April-12 2012 1467 32 $4.58 $0.10 $146.70
May-12 2012 1042 30 $4.17 $0.12 $125.04
June-12 2012 890 29 $3.99 $0.13 $115.70


Here are my previous years energy numbers
February-11 2011 950 29 $4.86 $0.15 $141.00
March-11 2011 934 29 $4.76 $0.15 $138.15
April-11 2011 850 29 $4.23 $0.14 $122.53
May-11 2011 839 29 $4.05 $0.14 $117.39
June-11 2011 814 29 $3.83 $0.14 $110.93

And once again I have burned zero fuel oil. We did burn maybe one bag of wood pellets because we had a dinner party and the wife wanted the stove going. The spring was warmer than last spring but we had snow and March and April were very cold. We have been using the AC lately and it we love it.

Two weeks ago we installed some drainage ditches above the loop field to direct some water away from the house. Today the dozer came and made short work of the field. We will fire up the tractor and landscaping rake tomorrow and maybe get some seed in the ground. The area above each loop is still soft, after I seed it I will not even look at the field for another year.