EcoRenovator - Dxgshpwh (ground source heat pump water heater)

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So coolpack is something I will learn over time. I've never been good with computer programs and its quite overwhelming. I did find a few helpful charts, and some threads on here.

30 feet for the water heater HX, and a bore hole of 30 feet deep (60 feet of tubing altogether) with the cap tube at the top of the bore hole looks to be a good balance with everything being 1/4inch. Am I missing anything? I'm ready to buy some copper and get started making the coil. Pictures will start as soon as I do.

Hope your project is developing well.

If you hit a snag & need help, give a holler!

-AC

Thanks man, a few set backs have slowed me down. On the way out the door to visit the in laws I noticed a water puddle under my existing water heater, needless to say I had to buy a new one. Just got back in town and plan to start back on the coil tomorrow after work.

I got the propane dryers and adapter all brazed. And started making the coil, I post pictures soon. I don't have a smart phone so it takes a minute.

So I found that with this new water heater the insulation is thicker therefore making the screw in coil much to long and causing it to make its way to the top of the tank. So i pulled it all out and just made it coil itself at the bottom of the tank. I used my inspection camera to make sure all was ok. Sorry for the bad quality its a picture of a live feed. 30 feet of 1/4 inch refrigeration copper is in!

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1432435339

MEMPHIS91

This water heater project is probably the best bang for buck on any DIY home efficiency radar. My parents are saving a pile of money with the one I had built for them.

Its located in their finished basement an it purrs away in a small utility room. The heat it actually sequesters from the room is not at all noticeable. During the summer months when the air is humid they may get a quart of water (condensate) in a bucket beside the HPWH. But it evaporates as quickly as it collects. In fact there is a drain located only 4 ft. from the HPWH. But didn't bother to run the drain hose to it.

With your DX you will not encounter this small problem.

I have found that the amount of heat required by the evaporator is quite small (5000 BTU A/C window shaker) The amount of work required to drill the ground bore hole would be my issue. (As I age I'm getting lazy) However I'm on the edge of my seat to see how little energy you will use to heat the water as you have no need for a fan to force air through a finned HX. In fact it will be very quiet as well. I believe My creation ultimately used approx. 450 watts total. I know you will do a lot better with your efficiency not having the fan and only powering the compressor. I'm going to guess less that 300 watts!!!

To charge the system I used propane and slowly added to get an appropriate condenser temp approx. 140 deg. F As adding more refrigerant just raised the amount of power required and no more heat was produced. I believe the suction side was only 18 psi.

As far as the copper in the ground it will out-live both of us and 1/4" is all you will need there too. However if you are concerned HVAC suppliers (or Ebay) have a polyethylene coated copper tube that would last for an eternity in the ground.

Its a very rewarding project. More should do the same!!!

Randen

Quote:

Originally Posted by MEMPHIS91 (Post 45162)

I don't know about other folks, but I am having no luck at all being able to see images after post dated: 05-22-15 05:16 AM

I have a fast quad-core computer, very fast Internet, 32 GB of ram, a very powerful video card, and a large monitor.

Am I the only one having difficulties??

-AC

P.S.: the max width for an image that doesn't get resized by the EcoRenovator robot is 640 pixels.

Sorry about that AC the pictures are much to big. I resized a few. Most the others are not important since I had to change up my design.

This is the way I brazed on a propane valve for the small cooking bottles.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1432676093

This is the finished product and going into my gauges to test for any leaks.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1432676093

Here is where the change happened. I could not get 30 feet of 1/4 refrigeration copper to coil in the tank without going to the top. This really was a problem because I had planned on simply brazing on an old hacked element base and continuing to screw the coil in. So I just uncoiled the tubing and and ran in it the bottom element hole and got it to coil at the bottom. http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1432676093

I used teflon tape and joint compound with a 36" aluminum pipe wrench to put it all together. I will finish the back half tonight. Idea is to braze the coil through a 1 inch bass cap then tighten the union down. I'll post more picture at the right size from now on. http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1432676093