Horizantal collector

ivorfa

What would be the outcome if horizontal collector pipes were laid in concrete instead of soil as a solar collector for a heat pump, i know this has been done in some countries where collector pipes have been laid under roads in ashfelt

Tommyboy08

ivorfa wrote: »

What would be the outcome if horizontal collector pipes were laid in concrete instead of soil as a solar collector for a heat pump, i know this has been done in some countries where collector pipes have been laid under roads in ashfelt

The result is you'd be very cold in your house during winter! ;-)
What exactly are you trying to do?
Is this for heating a house I presume

ivorfa

Yes for heating a house I dont have enough ground with soil for collector
but have ground with hardcore which is to be concreted over but dont want to start to dig this out as its ready for concrete. Could go with borehole but thats an expensive option or lastly an air to water heat pump. Hopefully house wont need much heat its an icf build just waiting on airtightness test to be done

Tommyboy08

ivorfa wrote: »

Yes for heating a house I dont have enough ground with soil for collector
but have ground with hardcore which is to be concreted over but dont want to start to dig this out as its ready for concrete. Could go with borehole but thats an expensive option or lastly an air to water heat pump. Hopefully house wont need much heat its an icf build just waiting on airtightness test to be done

Well if your heat demand is low then this will also result in a smaller heat pump and smaller boreholes and less cost,

ivorfa

just find it hard to justify the price for bore hole and heat pump considering
the amount of heat that will be needed do you not think an air to water heat pump would be more suited in this situation. i know i will not get the same cop but the difference in price for the two systems would go a long way in making up for the lower cop.

Tommyboy08

ivorfa wrote: »

just find it hard to justify the price for bore hole and heat pump considering
the amount of heat that will be needed do you not think an air to water heat pump would be more suited in this situation. i know i will not get the same cop but the difference in price for the two systems would go a long way in making up for the lower cop.

Price both first and see what the difference is before you make up your mind, 3 or 4 grand won't be much over the life of the system when you think your ground unit will last almost twice as long and depending on what ground source unit you get, up to half the running costs also

etcetc

Was thinking something similar about geo thermal heat as I have a big drive to dig up hardcore and tar. Could the pipes for the geo thermal be placed under the hardcore (horizontal) ?

Tommyboy08

etcetc wrote: »

Was thinking something similar about geo thermal heat as I have a big drive to dig up hardcore and tar. Could the pipes for the geo thermal be placed under the hardcore (horizontal) ?

By any chance is this for a renovation?
And if it is then what's your current set up, oil and rads or oil and ufh?