Geothermal HVAC Blog

Ok, I had to test the system one more time this morning in auxiliary heat mode.
What I found was interesting. The desuperheater pump runs when the heat pump is in heat mode. But it does not run when the heat pump is in cooling mode. I would think that it would be running in cooling mode all the time and in heat mode only I called my installer. He is going to check it out. I should hear back from him today.

I am anxious to get this issue resolved and see the results on my live data monitoring page. I’ll update this post when I hear something. When the 1st stage is used for heating the 2nd stage should be used to heat the domestic hot water. When the 2nd stage heating is required, I would think that the desuperheater would then be cut off. This is another good question to ask my installer.

The Geothermal HVAC page has been re-designed. Two pages have been added, one now contains the ( Energy Usage Charts) and the other contains a link to the real time data page (real time data page)

May 2006

I have acquired some of the hardware required for monitoring my Geothermal HVAC system. The system that Phil Malone at ourcoolhouse.com has developed will be the system which I will install.

Currently I have received the WEL (Web Energy Logger) unit with an initial 11 temperature sensors. I have been testing and running the unit with all 11 temperature sensors installed on the 1-wire system. All sensors are in contact with one another and are in a bubble wrap bag to calibrate the readings. So far, the sensors seem to be within a fraction of or at most 0.10 degree of each other.

I will be pairing the sensors together to provide close to the same calibrated readings before actually installing the sensors on the pipes and installing the 1-wire system. I have provided a link to the page where the data is maintained. The page is updated with current values about every 60 seconds.

For now, keep in mind this system is in test mode!

April 2006

Well, it is almost May and it will soon be time to switch over to cooling mode. So far we are operating ok.

It looks as though I will be ordering the monitoring system this week. I am excited to get this operational. Because I have two bubbles (power meters) to monitor (manually) electric usages of the heat pump and air handlers already, I won’t be adding this to the new monitoring system initially.

I will provide updates as this unfolds.

March 2006

Ok, a few months later, but I finally got results from my geothermal system installer. It turns out the problem that I was experiencing was caused be one of the test probe ports on the source side of the heat pump. Apparently the gasket was leaking so slightly that it took about 4 months before the system efficiency became noticeably degraded.

The system has been repaired and all ports were checked to make sure there were no more leaks. It seems like a simple repair that required a little troubleshooting.

It was just so darn frustrating getting to this point.