Ducting and Geyser

[BoilerMan]

Anyone with a Geyser have any expierence with ducting the cool air to another room? They say that you can install the unit in another room for the cooling and dehumidification benifits. I was thinking of the master bedroom in the house which is directly over the mechanical room where the Geyser would be located. Making some simple short (6' or less) duct runs. I'm just weighing my options, if I can cool the bedroom in the summer, it pushes me more toward this type of setup, as we do run and old loud window A/C for the three weeks of summer we have here. Also can anyone speak of the noise associated with the compressor and fan.

TS

 

[Redbarn]

Anyone with a Geyser have any expierence with ducting the cool air to another room? They say that you can install the unit in another room for the cooling and dehumidification benifits. I was thinking of the master bedroom in the house which is directly over the mechanical room where the Geyser would be located. Making some simple short (6' or less) duct runs. I'm just weighing my options, if I can cool the bedroom in the summer, it pushes me more toward this type of setup, as we do run and old loud window A/C for the three weeks of summer we have here. Also can anyone speak of the noise associated with the compressor and fan.

TS

I have done exactly that. It works great. The Geyser pumps out slighly cooler but quite dry air.
We have an old house and our Geyser & DHW tank are in the basement below our summer parlour.
I used existing registers to get air in and out of the Parlour.
I used 2 x 6" dia pipes for air feed in and cold air return. 4 pipes total.
Used a 2 x 6 into 8" dia Y and then an 8" dia T piece to feed into and out of Geyser.
The Geyser needs at least 8" dia air feeds.
I built a wooden plenum box around the inlet filter and mounted the inlet 8" T onto the box.
Used insulated pipes both ways as the cold air return pipes do sweat in the basement in summer.
Bought all the parts from Lowes. Did it all in a weekend.

The Geyser fan noise is negligible, just about unnoticeable. The 6" duct size helps a lot in keeping the noise down.
However, the system only generates cool, dry air when the Geyser is actually running.
So my wife does the laundry in the late summer afternoons to ensure a cool room in the evenings.

You'll need a good water drain for the waste water out of the Geyser. It generates a surprising amount in the summer.

 

[BoilerMan]

Great info, I have a large 115gal. indirect and plan on useing the Geyser on a timer with an aquastat overide so we'd have cool air in the bedroom in the evenings and night. We take evening showers in the summer anyhow.

TS

 

[maple1]

Redbarn - did you encorporate any air filtration in your setup? Any problem with dust/dirt getting into the Geyser if no?

This is something I've also been seriously considering, after I recover from the financial hit of the new boiler/storage setup of last year. I could (relatively) easily run short ducting from the floor under the back of my fridge, thru a Geyser, then out the other side & up into my living room. There are always tons of dust bunnies under our fridge, I'd suspect most floors would have dust to draw from if pulling intake air from floor level.

Pics of some of your ducting work would be great too.

 

[Redbarn]

Redbarn - did you encorporate any air filtration in your setup? Any problem with dust/dirt getting into the Geyser if no?

This is something I've also been seriously considering, after I recover from the financial hit of the new boiler/storage setup of last year. I could (relatively) easily run short ducting from the floor under the back of my fridge, thru a Geyser, then out the other side & up into my living room. There are always tons of dust bunnies under our fridge, I'd suspect most floors would have dust to draw from if pulling intake air from floor level.

Pics of some of your ducting work would be great too.

I use the large air filter that is on the air inlet to the Geyser. This is circa 12" square.
I change it every Spring and Fall.
At the end of each cooling season, I take a vacuum down into the basement and disconnect the air hoses from the Geyser.
I stuff rags around the vacuum hose into the 8" air ducts and run the vacuum for 5 mins or so.
That sucks all the dust out of the ducting.
I then shut off the vents upstairs and plug the 8" air hoses with an 8" end cap over the winter.

I'm away out of town this week. I'll try to take some pics of my setup at the weekend.

 

[Redbarn]

Redbarn - did you encorporate any air filtration in your setup? Any problem with dust/dirt getting into the Geyser if no?

Pics of some of your ducting work would be great too.

Found a picture of when I installed the Geyser 2 years ago.
I've since added a proper waste water drain.

This shows how the Geyser was plumbed in parallel with the 80 gall oil water heater.

The 2 x 6" inlet and outlet air ducting pipes can be seen.
The wooden box on the LHS of the Geyser acts as a inlet plenum with clearance around the air inlet filter.

 

[BoilerMan]

Redbarn, any reason you put it on the floor? For thermosyphon, does the Geyser unit have it's own internal circulator to move the hot water to the tank?

TS

 

[Redbarn]

Redbarn, any reason you put it on the floor? For thermosyphon, does the Geyser unit have it's own internal circulator to move the hot water to the tank?

TS

I chose the location in the basement that gave the straightest and easiest runs for the dry air ducting.
There is a 6" raised platform for the oil boiler so I started the Geyser there.
It worked just fine there until... Hurricane Irene.

The photo I uploaded was from 2 years ago, i.e. pre Irene and Sandy.
Both of these events flooded our basement so the Geyser (which survived an 8" deep flooding from Irene) is now
on a 24" high platform. This means that it is above the lower water heater entry and the lower hose now runs downhill.

I assume the Geyser has its own circulation pump. I've never bothered to ask or look. To verify, you need to ask Nyle or maybe Tom in Maine.

 

[Redbarn]

Redbarn, any reason you put it on the floor? For thermosyphon, does the Geyser unit have it's own internal circulator to move the hot water to the tank?

TS

This is a pic of my inlet box.
I made a plywood box that fits snug over the air inlet filter and it is held in place by a bungee chord that drops into 2 recessed holes..
The box actually hold itself but there is a slight load from weight of the duct, hence the bungy.
For changing filters, the bungee is released and the box removed. The inner surface of the box is about 4" away from the filter.



The outlet is shown below. I removed the Geyser air outlet grill and drilled 4 holes in an 8" dia flanged outlet.



The system is currently in winter mode and so the Geyser draws and discharges air to the basement.
For Summer mode, the air pipes are just plugged into the 2 x 8" inlets and outlet pipes.