The Homemade Heat Pump Manifesto

[mejunkhound]

Congratualtions on 100k hits!

Neat thread. My first time here.

Glad to see a nice group of folks not intimidated by the so-called pros, nor inundated by the 'ha-ha' type of know-nothings untalented 'pros' - as exhibited in some of the early posts. probably more buried in the thread, which I have not read thru.

Happened by here as was posting about my DIY GSHP on a greenbuilding site and had fun throwing back the cr@p at retailers and salesmen who claim DIY HP is 'impossible'. It aint rocket science after all.

I built my GSHP from scratch for under $1000 -- $300 of that was for a new closeout copeland scroll, $70 for refrigerant (next one will be BBQ propane, another topic), $100 for welding rod, etc. to build a percussion drill rig on the back of my dozer, various other tidbits, etc.

Heat my 5300 sq ft house (another DIY project) with it totally.

HP Evaporator is tube in tube made from all surplus pipe (cleaning techniques a story all by themselves too) , condensor a salvaged 7-1/2T carrier coil, all homebuilt controls, etc.

Might retire this year, and will post some details as a how-to for others then when time available.

The $1000 DIY HP has a COP of 5.6 at 9.5 gpm water flow, I get 58,000 BTU/Hr output from a nominal 4T scroll compressor - trouble free operation since built in 2009.

Keep up the good work, there are only a few folks out of 100 who are willing to learn and do as you are, we need to keep encouraging others!

[S-F]

Good God! Please post a lot more information about this project! Please start a thread or something so enlighten us! How did you drill? How deep? Haw many wells? How did you hack the compressor? How is it controlled?

You guys rock.

[pachai]

mejunkhound,
I would love to hear more about your hacked Heat Pump.
I happen to have several air conditioners that would
make great "donors" as they say in the DIY Electric car groups.
One is new in box, 1 year old.
Two others are 1 and 2 years old....
and another one has a bad blower motor.
As far as I can tell, the compressor works.

[mejunkhound]

This site looks like a good site to start a separate thread when I have time (may not be till I retire later this year)

Think there is a pix attached if attachment tool worked,
LH is control box, 100% DIY from garage sale 'finds',
RH pix is how to build your own 5 Ton evaporator with scrap pipe (cleaning the insides of old Cu pipe to use on HP involves ferric chloride, HCl, etc) Used 70 feet of 3/4 Cu pipe inside 1-1/4" PVC for HP descriped in #650.

DIY well drilling (long story) but ended up using the cable tool method as had to go thru a few 3 ft dia basalt boulders - used up most of a '72 datsun and '64 GMC truck and parts of '62 Chevy to build the drill rig.

edit BTW - the 8-ball is to signify DIY 'denigrators', heh, heh....

Have fun.

[Piwoslaw]

Good job mejunkhound

I can't wait to see the details once you start the thread.

[Daox]

Congrats on the 100k views ACHacker! You've done an amazing job with your heat pump and I'm glad to see so much interest in the topic. Thanks for sharing with all of us!

I also agree with the others, it would be great to hear more about your project mejunkhound.

[randen]

New to the thread enjoying very much.

AC good work. I live in Canada, Ontario in the countryside with a lot of wind. We used to heat a 3400sqft home with oil. OUCH. The home I built in 1997 was on-grade concrete slab with in-floor heat and great insulation. Very efficient and comfortable. We had changed to a comercial GSHP suplimented with solar hot water to heat the floor. Now the cost to stay warm in Canada is easier to live with. Next I will try to build my own GSHP for my shop 1600sqft. I will be converting a 2.5T air cond. and direction from your thread. Half the shop already has in-floor But the balance of the concrete will have to be torn out and installed with PEX.
I have found with the solar hot water suplimental that a heat exchanger (HX)/copper coil built inside a hot water tank is not as effective as a counter flow brazed plate HX. After all the heat transfered to the water in the tank is by gravity off the copper coil.

Looking forward to hacking the AC

[Daox]

Welcome to the site Randen.

I'd love to hear more about this project. I too wish to tear out my garage floor to put in a heated floor. I'd love to see how someone else handles the project.

[AC_Hacker]

Originally Posted by pachai

I have a quick question... can you tell if the outside unit would lend itself to conversion to Ground source?

In other words, is it suited for a hacking by adding
chilled water piping, or clipping on additional cooling
fins that could then be connected to a ground loop?

It seems silly to have 2 systems, but my idea is to
leverage the mass market volume pricing of an ASHP,
and with it the "sealed" system.

My understanding is, using stock pipe lengths
does not require special tools (does it?).
And it is much easier to plumb in a 3" cable
than a 4x10 duct.
...

Seth,

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Sorry to not get back to you sooner, but I had a serious accident on my electric bike, broke my arm in six places, endured two surgeries and will be laid up for some months. All projects on hold for the time being (ALL MY BASE ARE BELONG TO THEM). My typing has always been slow, now it's slower, but I can still type.

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Almost all of the mini-splits use "inverter technology" which means that the incoming AC is converted to DC, then re-converted to AC at varying frequencies, which makes for variable speed compressors and V.S.fans, and a big gain in efficiency.

You are quitie right about economies of scale and minisplits.

If someone who had a good technical background in circuits & programming could "break the DNA code" on minisplit construction, it would be a tremendous boon to the HVAC DIY community. Maybe you're the guy?

As of this writing, there are few options available for high performance, inverter technology Air-to-Water heat pumps.

...this is one that is way good and way expensive.

But it sounds like you are interested in air or water in and air out, right? I found a document about this kind of thing, only on a larger scale.

They're suppose to be a very good compromise, maybe the best.

At any rate, I started a thread on mini-split hacks, because Xringer seemed to be interested in it.

Good luck,

-AC_Hacker

[AC_Hacker]

mejunkhound,

Welcome aboard!

Originally Posted by mejunkhound

Congratualtions on 100k hits!

Neat thread. My first time here.

Glad to see a nice group of folks not intimidated by the so-called pros, nor inundated by the 'ha-ha' type of know-nothings untalented 'pros' - as exhibited in some of the early posts. probably more buried in the thread, which I have not read thru.

Happened by here as was posting about my DIY GSHP on a greenbuilding site and had fun throwing back the cr@p at retailers and salesmen who claim DIY HP is 'impossible'. It aint rocket science after all.

I'd be interested to see that thread, you should post the URL.

Originally Posted by mejunkhound

...copeland scroll, $70 for refrigerant (next one will be BBQ propane, another topic)

My work has been with small compressors 0.25T & 0.6T... and using propane is a hazard. Using propane on a multi-Ton system is a potential catsatrophe. The Brits get around this by removing the compressor and other propane components, from an occupied building. That way if something goes haywire, you still have a home.

Originally Posted by mejunkhound

HP Evaporator is tube in tube made from all surplus pipe (cleaning techniques a story all by themselves too)

I sure would like to see much more details on this... how did you size, intall, etc. too.

Originally Posted by mejunkhound

The $1000 DIY HP has a COP of 5.6 at 9.5 gpm water flow, I get 58,000 BTU/Hr output from a nominal 4T scroll compressor - trouble free operation since built in 2009

Great, just great. How did you calculate your COP? I need a method to do this.

-AC_Hacker