geothermal heat with rads

badgerhowlin

Hi,

Anyone i know of has geothermal heat with underfloor heading.
I dont like underfloor heading and dont want it in my house.

So is it possible to have it with rads.

Is it a good idea to have geothermal heat?
Do you need a backup heating source EG wood pellet burner.

jod1983

You would need a buffer tank for it to work efficiently. Geothermal/Heatpumps do not work well when they are switching on/off frequently.

heinbloed

The OP asks:

Is it a good idea to have geothermal heat?

Yes, our planet would be uninhabitable without it.

Jod 1983 said:

You would need a buffer tank for it to work efficiently. Geothermal/Heatpumps do not work well when they are switching on/off frequently.

There seems to be a mix-up with soil based ST collectors and geothermic energy.

Surface based ST collector systems make sometimes use of buffer tanks.


Geothermal energy usage needs no extra buffer tank. The planet is the buffer.
See how they use geothermal energy in other countries. Like Italy,New Zealand, USA, Iceland etc..

Ground source 'heat pumps' have little to do with goethermal energy. The shallow, horizontal collectors use primary solar thermal energy, very ineffective b.t.w.. Here the ground/soil is the buffer tank.
It's thermal loss of the soil which guarentess that it doesn't heat up to much, some sort of buffering that is....

badgerhowlin

heinbloed

I fully agree with you our planet WILL be uninhaditable without out stuff like this.

I left out the 2 most improtant words in that question. WITH RADS!

So ill ask again
Is it a good idea to have geothermal heat WITH RADS?
Or
should i say is it possible to have geothermal heat WITH RADS?

creedp

seanhowlin wrote: »

heinbloed

I fully agree with you our planet WILL be uninhaditable without out stuff like this.

I left out the 2 most improtant words in that question. WITH RADS!

So ill ask again
Is it a good idea to have geothermal heat WITH RADS?
Or
should i say is it possible to have geothermal heat WITH RADS?

In fairness at least Heinbloed is consistent in his views, i.e. heat pumps are for idiots - his words not mine.

In relation to your query my understanding of heat pumps - geothermal (horizontal array/vertical bore) and air-to-water is that they are much more efficient with output heat below 40c. This is perfect for UFH but not so for ordinary radiators which operate better at much higher temps or 60c or so. If you couple a HP with radiators you will get a poor COP and therefore your electricity costs wil be much higher. If you want to go with radiators you would be better off going with a different source of heat (e.g. condensing oil/gas boiler or maybe a stove(s) and ST.

The only way I would consider going with a HP without UFH would be to significantly oversize ordinary radiators or use radiators which use fans to better circulate the air. However, as Heinbloed says you should get a heating engineer to do the math in relation to the differences in cost between the different systems having regard to the heat requirements of you house, especially if you are considering a HP and don't want UFH.

That's just my couple of cent on the topic

badgerhowlin

I am in the process of getting all the u values to give to my brother-in-law who was talking to a heating engineer that did a house down the road.

He claims that the houses heating bill for last year was only 450.

now he didnt say what that 450 was for, weather it was the cost of running the heating pump for the year or if it was just for the extra heating(oil/gas/woodpellet burners) im not sure.

Would it sound right for running the heating pump?

paddy147

Use alloy rads and not normal rads too

JohnnieK

The long and short of it is you can use radiators with them but they will have to be sized correctly. Standard steel radiators give off outputs at differant delta T's. To work well with a heat pump they would have to be huge in size to give the correct out put for the room. You should look at Aluminium radiators as the out put from these are greater on a smaller surface area but be warned they are more expansive. Another option would be fan convector radiators but these use some electricity when running not sure how much.

Why dont you like underfloor heating?