Quote:
Originally Posted by pghdave
I appreciate all suggestions offered.
My other thought was a smaller ground loop in conjunction with the well loop. I have not seen anyone with this approach seems like it would work though. I know I need at least 43 degree water for the system to operate.
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DING DING DING! WINNER!
With what you have described so far, the ground is your best friend in satisfying your heat pump, especially on gloomy winter days. If you read through some (or all) of the
Manifesto, you will quickly learn why. There are a ton of graphs, charts and calculations contained there to help you figure out whether your concepts will actually work before you spend lots of time and money doing it the hard way. It's a lengthy read, but it is absolutely worth it.
Here's my crazy idea of the day: use your well bore as a temperature leveling, heat soaking device. A few feet below ground, the temperature stays nearly constant year-round, all the way to the bottom of your well bore. If you mist the wall of your well every so often with hot or cold water, it will naturally stick to the wall and flow downhill towards the pump, gaining or losing energy (in the neutralizing direction) along the way. This "bottom water" can then be easily routed to wherever it will achieve your needs. Since it was hand-dug, I'm assuming the borehole is larger in diameter than the typical 6 inches or less. Multiplying your circumference by 50 feet will tell you how much surface area you have. The key here is maximizing heat transfer into and out of your well bore. Not as efficient as a slinky or snake ground loop, but much less labor intensive.
Recycling your well water is also a good idea. Since you are not using this well as a potable supply, you should be able to use a sand filter (for pools) to filter out 99% of your sediment. It will have much more capacity than a cartridge filter, and when it gets clogged up, you just flush out the crud. It's about pool-opening time, and plenty of preppies will be replacing theirs this year for no obvious reason, other than trivial repairs (o-rings, gaskets, laterals, etc.) or just plain old age. You may even have one connected to your pool already...