Another new guy.
 

Hi all, I am from Eastern Ontario and only just found your forum. My interest lies in lowering my heating oil consumption - around 475 liters per month by possibly looking at GSHP or similar.
Not sure about digging up my backyard and it's probably too small anyway but about 30 years ago I read an article in the Mother Earth News titled " The Biggest Ice Cube in Captivity". If I recall correctly a heat pump was connected to a very large tank of water....the coils were inside the tank and the system was used as a heating system in winter which effectively turned the water to ice and an air conditioner in summer to turn the ice back to water ready for winter. Obviously not perfectly balanced but could be augmented with solar collectors etc to start the system with higher temps.
The water tank was in his basement but reported that it could be outside in a building the size of a small garage.
Hope this isn't too long of a Hello:)

Welcome to the site sputnik.

I don't want to turn you off, because heat pumps are great efficient machines. But, even our heat pump owners here will admit that sealing and insulating your house is usually a better way to go initially. If you haven't done these things yet, I'd highly suggest doing them as they're much cheaper and easier to do.

Welcome, Sputnik:)

What you read about is a good idea, and storing energy in phase change materials has been mentioned here before. Using a large tank of water for heat storage (though without a phase change usually) is called a heat accumulator or heat buffer and is very helpful in increasing a house's efficiency. I believe that member osolemio has a large water tank under his house for seasonal heat storage.

But as Daox mentioned, proper insulation should be the first step, with a much better cost-to-return ratio than any other investment. Once you're insulated, your heat pump, or any other project, can be downsized.

Have fun digging through the info here:)

Welcome to the forum.

Thank you for the welcome and pointer to insulate.......living here after emigrating from the relative mild climate of England insulating was among the first improvements that we made to our home. At one time we were able to take advantage of the government incentives to reduce heat loss. There is not much more we can do to help ourselves from the energy crunch except look for alternatives. You can tell from my reference to Mother Earth News that we were always looking for improvements in what was low tech methods.
Regards.

My welcome also sputnik and agree with Daox... stick to the basics first and then build up. I've always been pretty intrigued by heat pumps also and have heard great things about them but have yet to be introduced to them myself... I power my home with a 4.8 kw solar pv system, works great. Looking to possibly install solar pool heating, but with the spring and summer months coming up, I'll probably put it off again...

Best of luck,

Ken
Lime Light Renewable Energy