08-31-13, 04:21 PM | #1 |
Michael
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: mendocino, california
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Heat pump plus comprehensive plan
Attached is a sketch of a comprehensive plan for space and water heating for both my current house and another smaller house I'm in the early stages of constructing. In our house we have the in-floor radiant system and the PV solar array already. I am preparing to install the source field and heat pump over the next year or two. All of the shown components will also be put in the new construction although the PV solar will be somewhat smaller since it is to be a smaller house at 1200 SF.
I have spent a good deal of time trying to understand how to integrate these systems to achieve as close to an energy zero house as possible. The missing feature in the sketch, of course, is the means of monitoring and controlling the system. I want to employ many, many sensors, so I can learn what's happening, for example, in the ground where the source loop is planted. That phase will come eventually, but for now I feel happy to have simply conceived of the project as a whole instead of many, separate parts I've got to link together. I'm putting the sketch up for comment and criticism because I've come to realize that this site is populated by lots of folks who know their business and are creative thinkers. I'll do my best to respond to questions. The PV array can be found on another thread titled "DIM 5500 w PV Array," and a short video of it can be found on YouTube at "TrackingQT1." Conversations about our radiant heating system can be found on other threads. Thanks in advance for your advice. Michael Moreland Mendocino, CA |
09-01-13, 01:58 PM | #2 |
Supreme EcoRenovator
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A simple way to control and monitor this system would be to use an Arduino. You can get control boards starting at $20 at radio shack, and they are scalable. There are plenty of sensors, interfaces, displays, and doodads to do what you are trying to accomplish. They are easy to program and debug, and lots of premade code and library files abound on the internet. You could put one together for your proposed setup for well under $100.
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09-01-13, 04:40 PM | #3 |
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For a system that elaborate you might want to consider the Raspberry Pi. It's just a little more expensive than an official Arduino but far more capable. The added cost is basically nothing compared to the total cost of the system and having more CPU and memory will let it run your stuff better.
I'm working on a "simple" hybrid air conditioner and I'm already looking at a 533MHz ARM platform (from a broken Kindle 3) to run it. (It's too bad that my old 200MHz Jessica Simpson development board doesn't have I2C or SPI or I would have used that. I messed something up a long time ago so it no longer boots, but that's another story...) My design is going to have wireless sensors to detect the water heater temperature, which turns out to be quite involved as far as all the encoding and stuff is concerned. While I'm sure my friend Tiffany Yep could make something that would work very well, she'll insist on using an expensive FPGA rather than a cheap processor. Having such a powerful CPU would help loads with simplifying the receiver circuits.
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09-02-13, 06:00 AM | #4 |
Master EcoRenovator
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Having a look at the schematic, I have found that it is best to introduce the cold water to the bottom of a solar tank. Take out the drain, put in a brass tee and use the extra port. Those dip tubes cause mixing and take away the stratification that is needed to get the most of the solar. Just a thought.
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09-02-13, 12:43 PM | #5 | ||||||
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If you are serious about getting advice, you need to be serious about supplying relevant information upon which to base that advice. * * * Please understand, I am trying to help your project succeed. Best, -AC_Hacker
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Tags |
heat pump, pv solar, solar water |
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