Hello from the Interior of Alaska
 

Greetings,
My name is Joe and I live in the interior of Alaska just outside North Pole.
I found this site doing a search for home made ground source heat pumps.
I am interested in making my own GSHP out of recycled parts. I am also in the process of building a new house, I completed the ground work two summers ago and plan on starting my foundation early this spring and building a super insulated home using something similar to the REMOTE wall system REMOTE Wall Study | Cold Climate Housing Research Center
I am going to try to make the most efficient home that I can due to the ever rising cost of energy.
always tinkering with something or another, I like taking broken things apart and trying to figure out how they work and why they stopped working..
looking forward to reading many posts here.
Joe

I learn something every day. North Pole, AK is a city near Fairbanks, about 2° south of the Arctic Circle. It's probably a pretty dark place, this time of year.

I see you have 2.3 times as many heating degree days per year as we do in Buffalo, so you've got quite a bit of motivation to build with an amount of insulation that most folks in Buffalo would consider unnecessary and extreme.

Is the ground warm enough where you are to do a GSHP? How deep will you drill?

Anyway, welcome to the forum.

well,
it is not to bad, this time of year it is short on sunlight but we make up for it all summer..
I have attached a picture of the moon the other afternoon.

Ground water is only about eight feet down or so so I speculate that the ground from there down never freezes. I have not measured ground temps yet but there are a few GSHP's in pilot mode here now, there is a link on that remote wall page that talks a little bit about them.

thanks for the welcome, looking forward to learning and sharing as I go

Joe

ah forgot,
The field in the picture is where I will most likely bury my field side tubing. I have heavy equipment to include a dozer that I will just cut trenches as deep and long as I need then just back fill.

I don't believe that Seasonal Affective Disorder needs to be debilitating or that it affects everyone, I just find it ironic that a city that was (according to Wikipedia) named in an effort to capitalize on X-Mas spirit is actually quite dark this time of year.

The planet's north pole won't have seen sun for about three months by the time Christmas rolls around.

Are there lots of folks out your way interested in superinsulated or otherwise unconventionally efficient buildings? I'm not aware of more than a few houses like that in this area.

You would be suprised, there are quite a few older buildings here that are probably leftovers from cheap energy and steep cost of building here. I don't think there are "alot" of well built buildings around here.
I think it is ironic that we pay some of the highest energy costs in the nation when we have the trans-alaska pipeline that literally runs through Fairbanks and north pole with two refineries that tap right off it here in north pole.
For me I think of the super insulated construction as an investment in my future heating costs.
I have a good advantage of living already on my own property where I plan to build. I plan to build out of pocket, this will allow me to build over a period of time without paying rent to someone else or be rushed to finish for a banks deadline plus it will allow me to try out stuff I want to try in heating and construction

Finally, someone who gets less sunlight in the winter than I do:D

Welcome to ER, Joe:) I hope you keep us informed on your GSHP project.

That picture of the Moon: Is that the highest it gets above the horizon? Or was it rising/setting?

Lol!
The moon in that picture was just rising the other day. It goes all the way across the sky pretty high up, and this time of year you can see it at high noon with no problem. We watched a total lunar eclipse the other night (solstice) it was very cool literally it was like -35. Wife and I wrapped up in blankets and would stand out for two or three minutes then go back inside and warm up for a few.
I am looking forward to sharing many pictures with all of you here.

http://www.city-data.com/city/North-Pole-Alaska.html

According to what I see on your "City Data file",
you could use a regular old Inverter Mini-split ASHP for about half the year.

http://teamductless.com/images/ductless_with_guy.jpg
When the air temperature is above 30F, I'll bet there is very little difference
in the operating cost. (Compared to a GSHP).

During the 'summer' time, the GSHP could be pumping some heat back into the ground for the coming winter..
Unless that ground water is moving and keeps your loops constant...

Cheers,
Rich

I suppose you could run them here from about April through October so that is a little more than half the year. If the ground side loop was buried deeper than about eight feet it would be in the water table. I live on a river bed flood plain, not sure how fast the water is moving but I do know that it is moving with the river that is not far from me, I have seen this while digging with an excavator here. Once the pit is wide enough you can see the muddy water moving across the open pit, slowly but it appears to be moving. I found a reversing valve in grainger that a guy should be able to hack into an old larger window ac unit to allow you to heat or cool? Another adventure maybe once I get my scale GSHP prototype working

I once did an experiment with a small window AC, installed backwards.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/geothe....html#post2100
It worked, but not really well. Needed the electronics bypassed I guess.


Yeah, if you can install the loops in running water at the bottom of an excavation,
that has to be the next best thing to installing them on a lake bottom.

I guess you have to just keep it deep up there in the frozen north.
My Sister and her husband live in Anchorage, but have been exploring
the idea of moving down to Texas one of these days.
(I've been dreaming of moving down there for the last 40 years).. :)


I don't know much about GSHPs, but I do have a tip for you..

Do this!
http://www.centralheating.co.nz/_pro...8e0a4e7978.jpg

Don't do this!
http://www.centralheating.co.nz/imag...mal_slinky.jpg

LOL!