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Hi Everyone, Panel Layout & Generation I would appreciate some feedback on my planned rooftop solar panel layout and the estimated power production, from your firsthand knowledge and experience. Power Production Spreadsheet (Google Drive) Summary Below are the summary figures showing when we...

Just some more data, direct from our electricity supplier MetEd, PA. Barcharts showing total household electricity usage, including heat pump for 2023. For a breakdown of just heat pump usage, and heat pump as a percentage of the total kWh, please look at the spreadsheet referenced in the...

@SunDave I so appreciate the offers for help from you all. For now I think we have the problem solved, as much as can be. Hoping the sound box topper will capture the last remaining little bit of hum that I hear. Partimewages pointed out a relevent fact, that I am hyper sensitive to noise...

Thanks so much.

@Partimewages Not an audio engineer...just a man whose wife moved to the living room to sleep on the couch and knew he had to find a solution damn quick, having been the one to convinced her to go geothermal and spend a large sum of money. I felt deeply responsible and that it was definitely...

Mostly fixed now, I wrote about it in the initial post. The unit was initially installed on a concrete floor and directly on cinderblock (by my request to elevate the unit above occassional basement floods in really heavy rains) and the pipes screwed into the ceiling/floor joists with U clamps...

How geothermal works is really fascinating, thank you for that expansion/contraction insight. Half the fun of getting the system was doing the initial research then watching all the work in progress, drilling, install, commissioning, plus learning how things really work in practice. It is such...

There is an interesting issue with decreased ground loop pressurization and increased vibration with our system. I found that when the pressure in the ground loops is lower than recommended specification, then vibration amplitude can increase in the ground loop pipes. The standard pressure for...

@Partimewages & @Supervstech Thanks for the clear information and experience behind the preference, much appreciated.

@SunDave What a great flexible plenum to ductwork connection, thank you. When we redo the ductwork I will ask the installer to add a similar flex connection into the system at the plenum. I think these flex connections both help with vibration suppression and help reduce sound transmission...

@SunDave Your temperatures are way lower than ours. Not sure if that was celcius -40C or farenheight -40F. I agree that once the air temperatures have dropped that low, you are likely almost completely running on a supplemental heat source, even with the best air source heat pumps today. Our...

@NC_hydro thanks for the comment, these are options that I have not researched at this time so would need to do some homework.

@millsan1 Good points on the well power draw costs of open v closed loop. Which system is right for each ground condition circustance and homeowner aims, really does take some careful assessment. How much land is available, the depth of water table, quantity of water flow and whether the...

@x98myers7 I hear you on the wood chopping, I had that in our previous home for just a pleasure burning wood fireplace. Chain saw bucking, chopping, stacking, hauling wood takes work. The mice always seemed to be most appreciate the luxury wood stack condominiums we built for them outside by...

@Real007 thanks for sharing your system experiences, all great ways to do geothermal and good information to share for those thinking about it. Definitely if you can do the work yourself it will save a ton of money as per your figures. I relied on the contractor, not personally having the...

(update 1/17/2024 - New figures for 12/10 heat and draw breakdown) See first post for updated screenshot and spreadsheet download. WaterFurnace Power Draw An example draw breakdown for a single reading, how the power draw is spreadout over the geothermal unit's components

Thanks, we love our geothermal system and it was step one of trying to go all electric in our home so we could then cover all power, heating and cooling needs via solar. This sets us up for retirement in the home to reduce our long-term expenses once we transition to a relatively fixed income...

WaterFurnace does do a combo unit that can handle radient floors, not that it helps your install unfortunately but just a general FYI for anyone else reading. https://www.waterfurnace.com/residential/products/geothermal-heat-pumps/synergy3d

Fantastic, well done. I lack the machinary and mechanical skills so paid the professionals. We couldn't do a trench system. Our installer advised that other people in our area who had installed using trenches, suffered shale damage to the coils after a couple of seasons. He recommended...

Thought to add an additional spreadhsheet analysis I did for the generator install part of the project, showing an electrical analysis of all appliances in the home (for sizing of generator) and a spreadsheet showing an analysis of the wattage draw of the WaterFurnace Series 7 unit at different...

Thanks for the feedback and sharing your own cabin build and geo + solar system setup, really great to hear what other people are doing. Alastair

I respect the alternate choice of mini splits, they certainly are a good option, technically and financially. The information is offered for those wishing to consider the geothermal path, I wanted to provide some real life figures to help people out. Alastair

Here are our average monthly loads over the last 24 months with the heat pump installed and prior figures.

Total Cost Breakdown This post provides the complete all-in costs for installing a WaterFurnace Series 7 ground source heat pump (closed loop) in 2021 for our home with full spreadsheet. Hoping this information helps someone considering a similar project, or just comparing ground versus...

That's a challenging problem. I am not a well pump expert but a quick forum & Google search offers some possible ways to handle the high amperage. Maybe not ways you wish to go but I thought to share the potential workarounds. This topic seems to have a number of discussions in this forum...

Yes the WaterFurnace Series 7 is a closed loop ground source unit. Looking at your ClimateMaster Tranquility 30 unit specifications, it runs as a two stage. Thinking about loads on inverters and batteries then you would have two major wattage and amperage levels to design for. A soft start...

I am glad if the knowledge helps you or someone else to figure their system out. Knowing the figures helps with planning. Glad to share. Alastair

@green mountain boys I agree, my thoughts exactly on a solid backup plan. Right now I have the WaterFurnace Series 7 installed with a 20kW propane backup generator using an ATS (Automatic Transfer Switch). This allows me, in an emergency, to run the geothermal full 15kW resistive heat. If...

@green mountain boys , The WaterFurnace Series 7 has soft-start built in so the LRA (Locked Rotor Amp) in-rush is very gentle. Not having a clamp meter at the moment, I have not measured the startup amperage, apologies. To measure that I think I would need to clamp at the breaker panel as to...

Hi Everyone, Some power load data to share, from monitoring our WaterFurnace Series 7 ground source geothermal unit in cold weather here in Pennsylvania Appalachian Mountains (elevation 669 feet). Wanted to figure out the power draw that was going to be applied to a Sol-Ark 15K-2P, that I am...

Hi @pvgirl , Have worked with Sol-Ark's excellent tech support this last week and come up with a simpler solution. I photoshopped the Whole Home Generator wiring diagram to show a manual bypass after the ATS. This allows for one bypass to handle both grid and generator. The Whole Home...

Hi @Chickenstick , Thanks for this thread and excellent wiring diagram, very helpful to my planning. Do you think the generator could be added to the grid side of the 2-way bypass? On the Sol-Ark, I think this would require the generator input be moved from gen to grid side input but am not...

@pvgirl , we do have 1.25 acres but there is a force stronger than zoning, my wife doesn't want to look at a ground mount out the window! I did a manual shade survey, which was fun by building the survey tool. Here are the shading percentages and a timelapse sun on roof sequence, south and...

Hi @xjaw4 , yes I agree about propane being a good efficient source of direct heat. I am just using it for emergency backup to power our home right now, when the grid goes down. Our goal has always try to go all electric with the geothermal and now planning for the solar system so the only...

You people are amazing! Thank you both @pvgirl and @millsan1 for the great advice. Pvgirl, using the existing ATS in that way was not an option that I had considered, great thinking. Millsan1, agreed that batteries would not be viable supplying the 15kW resistive heat for long. I understand...