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Originally Posted by The master plan
...During the summer I will start "charging" the ground with heat from whatever source I can....solar, ambient air,bon fires etc. lol...
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This is a really great plan... It will be very useful to know if there is water migration through the area where your slinky loop is. If this is the case, you can be sure that it will 'strip away' any heat or cold that you may want to store there. If there is no water migration, then storage is a good plan.
On the other hand, water migration could be useful to you, as it would bring you more heat or more cool... but it would undermine the storage idea.
Your general rainfall would tell you something... If you are in an arid area, good chance that there is most likely less of a water migration problem. If you live in a wet area, like Portland Oregon (my fair city), where annual rainfall is about 38 inches per year, then water migration is quite likely to adversely affect heat storage... the flip side is that there is a constant source of new heat falling from the sky (in the form of rain), during the winter.
So you need to get a handle on the water migration issue, for your specific location. Maybe your city has somebody that knows about this kind of thing.
But either way, your concept of using the ground as a heat source and heat dump is a good way to go, migration or no migration.
Randen has hands-on expertise in loop field heat estimation, so you should listen to what he has to say.
With that said, in my area, for a slinky trench, an 80 foot trench by 4 feet wide by 6 feet deep (coils buried flat) that has 600 feet of pipe can be relied on for one Ton. That estimate comes from an area that only occasionally goes below freezing in the winter... maybe 7 days at the most.
Your area will be different... so you should ask around and find out what your local GSHP installers are going with. There are many factors to consider, and local installers who have been in the business a while will know these things.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The master plan
Even if I installed a reversing valve and used it as a A/C during the summer I could add heat to the loop. How much I wonder and how long would it take? I read somewhere they are doing this in Canada.
Why wouldn't the high rise use the heat pump during the summer and thaw out the ground or at least add heat to it?
I think this is going to be a big learning experience and a fun project to tackle.
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Sounds to me like you are already beginning to get your money's worth from your investment.
The fun is just beginning...
Best,
-AC