DIY Geothermal install

[pinballlooking]

I just picked up the metal duct work. It looks great.






I need to add some top soil around the front of my house.
We have had crazy amount of rain and some water is getting under the house.
Red dirt is now red mud fun fun.

[randen]

Is the heat on yet??

Randen

[pinballlooking]

The last quote I got to just rip out my gas heat and install Geo unit only connecting duct work was 3K.
I did the whole thing myself for $350 that is new duct pieces and every screw and hangers... It was a lot of labor.

This is my tractor delivering the Geothermal unit to the crawl space.


I did enlist help from my son to get this thing under the crawl space.
We used 5 3” 3’ long PVC pipe to put under it and roll it into place.
The 1” pex was rolled up and it was cold out so we let it out in the sun for a while this really helped.


It was all connected up and I tried to run it yesterday. I just would get communications error on the thermostat.
I double checked the thermostat wiring all good. I looked for loose wires and there were none. I read the whole manual and there was one board jumper out of place I turned that on and we were in business.

It ran all night heating last night and it worked great.

Being that we are in South Carolina we are now running AC EWT 50 LWT 58 nice cool air.

I still have a few things to finish up like run condensate line and re insulate a couple pieces of duct work.

I am very happy to have it up running. Cementing the manifold in the ground worked great you can't even hear the pump running or the rest of the unit.
I hung up all pipe with flexible hangers.

Sorry I did not get many pictures I was really pushing to have in running for Xmas my farther in law is staying and that room does not have heat or AC until now.

[pinballlooking]

It is time to put the numbers to this project.

$9,560.56
Geothermal kit
This was 3 ton duel stage, 4 600’ loops pecharged with antifreeze. Custom manifold with pressure gauge, air purge. All fittings and everything to connect it up.

I bought two fittings to connect it to a garden hose to flush it. That is all everything else was included. Everything was color coded for supper simple hookup.

$1,000
2 300’ long 6’ deep trenches, track hoe work.

$350
local HVAC metal shop made new transition and a new plenum plus Mastic, screws Tape, hangers…

$924.47
Hot water buffer tank (You can go cheaper here but I wanted a tank that will last and it only looses 5 degrees in 24 hours with no power.)

Total cost was $11,853.03
Tax credit $6,509.27 Federal is 30% and my state is 25% total 55% tax credit.
My final cost will be $5,325.76

I will be adding a little more cost to the project this week. I will bring in topsoil get grass seed. Buy the copper pipe to connect buffer tank.

[pinballlooking]

I went under the house and did some finishing touches. Here is what’s it all looks like.

I will walk you from the manifold to the plenum.

I cemented a 4x4 treated post into the ground so the pump noise would not go into my sons bedroom. It was loud in his room before I did this. Now you cant hear it at all. He thanked me for doing this.


Pipe insulated out of the manifold.


I used white flex straps so no noise would be transmitted into the house.




The new transition to the old duct work.


The Geothermal unit.


The New plenum.


The back side of the new plenum.


The drain line and the hot water buffer tank is all that is left under the house.


The rest of the work is getting the yard and horse pasture back into shape and this can take some time to do. It does not need done in a day.

[randen]

Congratulations

Lots of work huh!! The installation costs are amazing

The numbers we’ll all be looking at are the operation costs. Remember don’t be concerned about the run time. Maybe pull the plug on those mini splits so they don’t tempt you and skew the results

I know you’ll be more than pleased and if I may make a prediction less expensive than natural gas

Randen

[pinballlooking]

Thanks.
Yes, it was lots of work being in a crawl space I feel like I was mugged and beat up.
Mini splits are all off.

I need to dig up my extra TED energy monitor CT so I can monitor how much power Geo is using.
The most amazing thing is how quite the Geo is you don’t even know when it is running.


I found my CT for my TED and connected it up. Now I can monitor the energy usage.

[randen]

Yes quiet and you have a fan. But they turn so slow
Mine is a water to water so you really need to walk into the mechanical room to know if it’s on. It draws something like 1200 to 1400 Watts. Less than a hair drier to heat and cool 3600 sq ft

If I’d known what I know now I would have went with a 3ph 208 and installed a VFD. The inrush current makes my new inverter grunt!! 83 amps!!! So for a moment or two well above the rated current
A VFD would slowly bring up the compressor. I haven’t had too much experience yet with loading up the inverter but to say 50 amp continues is fine.

We all are really curious what your heating costs maybe. But your on net meter correct,??so you may not even have a heating bill ???? WELL played

Randen

[pinballlooking]

I have the energy monitor working correctly now. The TED 5000 can be a little finicky setting up something new.

But once you have it going it works pretty well.



Stage one is using 1.882 Kw stage two is about 2.8 Kw. I have it set as stand alone so it will give Geo total energy for the days, month and later on the year.

I do have net metering but that is why I setup the energy monitor so I can tell and share how much power just the geothermal takes to heat and cool with.

I do think we will run out of our banked power this year. I don’t think that will happen next year now that we are doing HVAC with geothermal.
That is just a prediction time will tell.

[pinballlooking]

My system is a two-stage system. I connected up energy monitoring yesterday and determined that my second stage was kicking in before it gave the first stage a real chance.

I changed my thermostat to differential first stage 1 degree and second stage 2 degrees. Reading the manual, the second stage would not come on until 2 degrees from set point with these settings.

This is my first two stage system. How do others have this setup?

Does it sound like I am on the right track or is there a better way?