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Old 01-02-21, 03:25 PM   #4
jeff5may
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So, ignoring the residential HVAC industry's reluctance towards anything with "freon" outside "the magic box", a DX ground loop is no more difficult to construct than a glycol or water based ground loop. The ground volume that serves as the "heat well" is going to act the same regardless of the heat transfer plumbing and/or fluid. It's a balancing act: excess well capacity to ensure super efficiency versus material and construction cost. Naturally if you feel like a larger size field or larger diameter piping is necessary, it's going to cost more.

I saw that you had something to say in Jake's (Memphis91) ground source water heater thread lately. That's another one to read all the way through. He ran a single short borehole from some window ac unit guts, built a custom DX coil to retrofit his electric water heater, and tweaked and tuned for a couple of rounds until the numbers added up. Ran what he made, been going strong for years.

The only maintenance I know about is Jake fiddling with the system. The original DX heat exchanger is cap tube metered, custom optimised for his borehole. He caught the tinker bug and decided to try out a super efficient dehumidifier idea. Repurposed what looks like a 2 ton air handler HX and a computer case fan, and metered it with a thermostatic expansion valve. Chop, cut, rebuild, voila! Summer/Winter selectable humidity control!
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