Geothermal Hot water heating
Hey I also have a geothermal hot water system, and I need to advise everyone who gets one to watch the installation. It uses the surplus heat from the air conditioning freon, to heat water, which is circulated through the heat exchanger. the problem was that the installer simply hooked it up to an 80 gallon electric hot water unit. Well the crazy fact is that when I shower at 5:30, and pull down the hot water, the cold water entering the unit is quickly heated by the electric element to 130 degrees, and by the time the air conditioner starts operating at 12:00 am and the afternoon, to provide all that good free hot water, the water entering the exchanger is 130 degrees. So the unit says, sorry, thats as hot as I am alowed to heat water, go back to the electric hot water tank. SO,,, you get NO effective heating unless you are pulling water when the air conditioner is operating, and even then the electric elements will heat much faster than the heat pump. So I got an old 80 gallon hotwater tank and installed it as a "storage tank". The cold water enters this tank, there is no electric elements in it, The water constantly circulates until the whole tank reaches 130 degrees. Now when I take a shower, the electric hot water unit is replenished by 130 degree water from the storage tank. I am looking forward to seeing how much my electricity bill will drop, as I have only just completed this project, I am totally amazed that the manufacturer would not insist that the unit be installed with a holding tank, as the system I had was totally useless. Needless to say I cool the house for under $200, and my neighbors are running up $400 bills for the same size house. Its maintenance free, had it 3 years now. No noisy compressors outside, greatest thing since sliced bread.