"Insulate, insulate, insulate"
Quote:
Originally Posted by morphector
A big question for you, I really like the way your condenser is set-up, would there be a lot of losses by running glycol in a radiator outside instead of having real condenser outside?
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You mean to make it a ASHP instead of a GSHP? It would work but I don't have any information on expected performance of one over the other, with the exception that the rule of thumb is 10% loss per HX.
I've been thinking about something similar myself... being able to switch from a ground loop HX to a air-radiator HX... depending on if the air is warmer than the ground. If you had the same water-glycol mix in both loops, it would pretty much just be a plumbing issue.
I think the energy to drive a fan would be greater than the energy to drive a pump, by how much I don't know.
I think the 1000 gallon tank idea is a good one. You'd need to figure how many pounds of water you'd have, and figure how much heat you'd put into it (@ 120F max), and how much heat you'd take out (@ 34F min) and calculate the BTUs you'd get out, and then knowing the heat loss/hour of your house that you'd likely suffer during a cold snap, you could calculate how much good the tank would do you.
You really need to know the heat load of your house to make any informed decisions about tank sizing, though. It is a very important piece of information.
And don't forget, "Insulate, insulate, insulate".
-AC_Hacker