Interesting article about geothermal heat pumps

[joshuaviktor]

Geothermal Energy

As per my post about geothermal vs. heat pump alone afew days ago, I saw this in the NY Times. Actually, a good read about another renewable energy source. Also, the guy with the outrageously sized house, and HUGE install bill, lives about 15 min away from me. And I'm trying to scrape pennies together to buy a wood stove. Argh.

Joshua

 

[Sandor]

That article failed to point out that you get free hot water when the unit is in cooling mode - summertime. Most geo systems have that option.

 

[begreen]

Thanks for the posting Joshua. We are thinking of geothermal and are gathering info. While the basics are correct, I differ with the "only one moving part" statement. Seems to be overlooking compressor and blower for example.

What neck of CT are you in? We lived for years in West Cornwall. The Berkshires are still my favorite spot in New England.

 

[joshuaviktor]

No, I'm near the guy from Mendham, NJ. I live in Chester, NJ. Used to work in CT, though. Had to commute to Stamford for a few weeks to run a trading floor(IT end of it) They had a server room right off the trading floor where my desk was. It was during the summer, and I was the only one wearing a winter coat in 100+ degree heat. Server room was 58 degrees. Chilly!

Joshua

 

[begreen]

Ah OK. The article mentioned the house in Goshen and I mis-connected the dots. We've been looking at http://www.arit.com/index.htm for geothermal at a better price and with systems that I can install.

 

[vgrund]

Ah OK. The article mentioned the house in Goshen and I mis-connected the dots. We've been looking at http://www.arit.com/index.htm for geothermal at a better price and with systems that I can install.

DIY geothermal? That's hardcore. I would never consider such a project. I'd be way over my head with that.

 

[joshuaviktor]

Actually, I'm thinking about it as well. Not the whole heat pump thing, but sort of Redneck air conditioning. I want to put a 6" pvc pipe about 6 feet down, for about 200-300 feet, with a squirrel cage blower on it, and some pipe in the house, running to it. This would suck air out of the attic at high temp (hot air rises), run it underground for the distance, cooling it down, and then dump it in the house at ground floor level, cooling house. Have a friend with a backhoe, and in a year or two, might just try it. No compressor=LOTS less electric bill. Use Mama Earth's natural cooling system.

Joshua

 

[begreen]

Where is Elk? Didn't he install something to this effect? It should work, though I don't think you want to recirc the attic heat. It would work better to have a whole house fan in the attic, blowing heat out and a cool pipe sucking air in. Though perhaps natural convection would remove the need for the attic fan as long as it was well ventilated and had a grille opening to the house interior in the summer. I'd also use a much larger pipe, like 12" drain culvert stuff.

 

[Mike Wilson]

I'm sitting next to the Atlantic Ocean... maybe I could build a DIY HydroThermal system... you know, head down to Home Despot, pick up a thousand feet of garden hose, throw it into the sea, and pipe it into a compressor back home? Unfortunately the town Trustees (AKA the Enviro-Gestapo) would come to my door weeks before my first cheap utility bill did.

-- Mike