Geo Theromal Heating

teesee

I have gshp (Dunstar) installed for two years. I'm quite happy with it, but was wondering if any of you guys have come across 'Solo' heaters? I use these instead of ufh upstairs and find them excellent.
They come in two sizes; 3kw and 6kw. They are fan assisted (60watt) and use computerised logic to sample room temp and maintain it constant. They only use 0.5 litres of water per unit which is excellent when using low-grade heat eg geothermal.
I got mine from Heatmerchants recommended by Dunstar and at circa 2k for six units would represent a huge saving over ufh. They only need 1/2 inch flow and return and also require a looped mains supply.
Hope this helps.

yop

teesee,
thanks for the info, ya I came across those alright, they seem ideal alright if u dont want the UFH installed.

Would it be cheeky to ask what sort of running costs u are talking about with your GSHP, how much hot water ur are getting and that kind of thing.
It would be great to hear from someone who has this with actual real world figures

teesee

Hi Yop,
Here's esb since May 2004. Date is for the 2 months previously.
Jul 04 143.00
Sept 04 199.00
Nov 04 293.00
Jan 05 449.00
Mar 05 405.00
May 05 334.00

Total 1823.00
Running costs include Double Elec. oven loads of lights
I have another smaller house 1400 sq. ft. without heat pump or electric cookers and bill for the same period was 682.00. My new house is around 2300sq. ft., so I would have to say that heating seems to be costing around 1000.00.
An interesting footnote: Before I moved to my new house I was buying kerosene at 18cent per litre, today I believe it is in the region of 68cent. One would have to ask how many litres per annum would it take?
Ref hot water, my domestic hot water is around 35 degrees. and at least two showers in the morning is no problem.
Who wants roasting hot water that cold water has to be added in order to make the temp. comfortable? My dishwasher and washing machine are cold fill only.
I'm still experimenting for optimum performance. I have ufh downstairs and the Solo heaters upstairs.

borris the bad

I was at the home exibithion in Punchestown last week and was told"stay away from the refigerant geothermal as it is going to be banned in a couple of years"was this a load of old twaddle?
Has anyone heard of "easy-screed"?Its a liquid screed/leveling compound and was considering using this upstairs hence screeding the floor and getting it level at the same time.As it is a lquid you dont get the voids under the pipes as possible with a more traditional screed.
Regards
Borris

exilio

teesee,

Do you think your esb bills would be less if you had of went for solo heaters throughout the whole house? I'm researching heating systems for a new house build next year and my favoured option is a wood pellet boiler with solos throughout the whole house. However, after reading the wind turbine thread over in the green forum, I've suddenly become very electricity conscious and am curious as to how much electricity they use. Do you notice them switching on/off much once the desired temperature has been reached?

Oh, and another question...how noisy are they?

Thanks

yop

borris, out of interest who warned u away from the refrigerant?? We are looking at installing one.

Cheers

Eve1

yop wrote:

borris, out of interest who warned u away from the refrigerant?? We are looking at installing one.

Cheers

The sales rep from dunster mentioned something to me about it, can't rermember what exactly but it was something along the lines of it being dangerous if it leaks.

Eve

borris the bad

Hi yop
He was a guy on a high tech homes stand.It could be a wicked rumour perpetrated by the brine industry.It would be worth looking into.
Ps Your house is looking good and you seem to be a few of steps ahead of me.I am currently trying to decide on which method to level off the floor with ufh.Why cant I put down smartply decking ,insulation,pipes,35mm easy-screed?Joist 11/2 x9 at400mm centres
Regards
Borris

teesee

exilio,
The luxury of ufh cannot be surpassed. I tiled all downstairs, utility, kitchen/dining, conservatory, hall and downstairs shower/toilet. The heat is controlled at around 24deg. To come down to this on a frosty morning is pure magic. The 6kw Solo is quite noisy. We would put them on about two hours before retiring at night -- they would disturb a night's sleep! The only power they use is a 60 watt motor, so 15 would be pulling less than 1kw.
The difference between uhf and solos is the time taken reach the required temp. with underfloor, consequently the heat pump will be running much longer. The 3.8 kw motor will be running for a much longer period. With the Solos, they will be blowing heat within 10 minutes.
A word of advice for folk who are contemplating building two-storey, install hollowcrete (or equivalent) beams on your first floor. This will make uhf much more effective. It also means that you can build solid 100mm walls upstairs and almost eliminates all noise. The concrete beams will absorb rising heat from downstairs and will help heat upstairs. Check the prices of slab walls floor insulation (which in effect cuts down the rising heat) and everything else and you will find that it is a much better job.

exilio

teesee,

Thanks for the info. Had been thinking about ufh downstairs alright...might go with that now and just put solos in the 2 bedrooms upstairs.

Wobs

I was talking to an engineer friend of mine at the weekend and was telling him about the DX and brine systems. He reckons that the brine might be a better bet regarding leaks, a leak in the dx is going to be very difficult to find. He also brought up the point of the cost of refilling a system with brine or gas, brine would be alot cheaper.

Does anyone know how often each system may need top ups or to be refilled, its not something I thought about.

yop

Wobs that is fair enough but with the brine you have an extra heat exchanger, more pipe and lower COP, on a performance level the DX is a better solution but I can see the concerns with it.

teesee

Hi Guys,
If you're using antifreeze and if you've got the room, oversize your collector area and use Qualplex piping. I've used a 16 way manifold. Don't use standard PVC or you could have problems. Qualplex is guaranteed for 35 years.
Regarding topping up make sure you've got a gate valve fitted on one side of the collector beside the heat pump. Then run a small piece of copper piping from there and terminate with a garden hose connector through which you can fill from a regular tap.
Ideally you should have fitted a pressure guage on you collector side and maintain 1bar.
With most heatpumps a warning light will glow if the water in the collector drops below the level of the circ. pump.
You shouldn't have to check the water level very often. If the level goes low the heat pump won't function.

horseen

can anyone shed light on the matter of an aerothermal heat system. what price can i expect for a 2700 ft house.. all in? any can anyone suggest the best insulation to use... should you exceed building regulations? any knowledge or advice would be great!