Solar help

[jerrye]

I started to build this house three years ago and ended up working in Colombia and never got back to this project
Now that I've retired this has become my number one mission
My wife inherited her mothers ranch in Colon Mexico, there are a few features on the ranch that make me think using solar is the way to go when I build a new house
> ranch is at 7200 ft elevation
>water well is thermal water 98 degrees out of the ground
Water is pumped into a small lake to cool before using for irrigation
Lake water stays between 72degrees in summer to 68 degrees in winter
> Temperature in the winter gets down to 15 at lowest and average is 25 during
The night with 60 to 75 as an average during the day
> Temperature in the summer averages 60 to 80 during the night to 90 -95
The day
With these two features it seems that using the well water for heat and the lake water for cooling I could install in slab PEX tubing for heating and cooling.
Lake water temp differential for cooling is a concern as I do not know just how much cooling effect I would realize

PEX tubing and contractors for installation are available in Mexico, investigating cost options ( DIY or contract) as the ranch is in a very rural area
Any opinions would be greatly appreciated

[Daox]

Wow, that is some warm water. Your cheapest option would be an on demand 'smart' electric water heater that regulates outlet temperature. Since your water is so hot to begin with, it wouldn't require that much energy to boost it up to domestic hot water temps.

A small solar setup could also be used to boost the temperature up. You wouldn't need nearly the collector area of a normal solar array since your water is so warm to begin with.

Of course, you could also use this water directly for winter heating if you had a way of bypassing the cooling pond.

As for cooling, I don't think you'll be able to do a ton of good with 68F water. You could run a heat pump with piping in the lake, but it would probably be more advantageous (and expensive) to run the piping in the ground. Hopefully one of the other heat pump guys can help out here as they know more about it than I.

[jerrye]

Guess I need to explain some of the area lay out issues
We'll is about 350 ft from where I will build the house, I will need to pull 150 ft of 4" we'll stem to install a smaller pump below the main turbine heads, not a big deal I've done this before.
> Existing house is about 100 years old and started out as a barn
> just do not know how to size pump for in slab PEX heating.
> solar/electric pump, have not decided which. Life expectancy of solar is a lot less than electric
> what ever pump I use will require 350 ft run to the house and 350 run return back to well
> Water is pumped from well to either the lake to cool or to an in ground 2500 gallon cistern that is located near the well
> The cistern has an electric pump that pumps to an elevated tank on the house roof
> house water pressure is mostly gravity, I do have a small pressure pump for the master shower to boost pressure
> temperature of the water at the house after it goes thru the cistern and elevated water tank is around 70 or so
> Electricity is expensive in this area, so that is a consideration also
>styrofoam 2" and 4" is the only insulation I have seen in this area, insulation is not used in normal Mexican construction

[jeff5may]

Welcome to the forums, jerry.

If electricity is expensive in the area, solar panels panels are an attractive option. A heat pump of some kind would leverage the available power for faster return on investment. For more information on hydronic heating, just search through the forum and arm yourself with tons of information.

Better yet, start your own thread or three in the forums describing the way you have dreamed about the projects you have in mind. With a bit of effort and a lot of planning, your dreams and hopes can be fulfilled. There are very many wise and helpful people probably reading this article right now.