A7 AirTap install (ASHP hot water heater)

[MN Renovator]

Seeing all of those panels together makes me nervous when I remember this at the same time.

Peak Oil: Solar Panels Destroyed by Tree - YouTube

[Vern2]

MN Renovator,

It's called insurance. I'm really sorry for your loss. Do you have an update to this.

[MN Renovator]

That's not mine. Look at that guys Youtube channel, he talks a bunch about peak oil stuff, renewables, cars, etc. His insurance covered the damaged panels. Still a PITA to deal with insurance companies though.

[AC_Hacker]

Xringer,

I remember that back somewhere in the vicinity of THIS POST, you talked about harvesting the heat energy from your 65 F degree basement floor.

In some other post (which I couldn't find), I said that it would be very interesting to see what the temperature of your basement floor would be in the February/March time period, now that you are not regularly firing your oil burner.

So, do you have any measured data of your basement floor temperature now?

Also, I'd be very interested to know what the steady temperature of your cold tap water is, as it comes out of the spigot.

-AC

[Xringer]

Dang, no wonder the A7 is running so long these days!
(KillaWatt says 2.0 kWh during the last 36 hours).



Since Dec 1, 2012 the average temp has been 32 °F.
Since Nov 1, 2012 Precipitation: 6.81 in.

It's been pretty cool and dry, I suspect the water table is really low now.
Normally, it's pretty high, and I suspect it's a pretty good source of slab heat.

[AC_Hacker]

Originally Posted by Xringer

Dang, no wonder the A7 is running so long these days!
(KillaWatt says 2.0 kWh during the last 36 hours).



Since Dec 1, 2012 the average temp has been 32 °F.
Since Nov 1, 2012 Precipitation: 6.81 in.

It's been pretty cool and dry, I suspect the water table is really low now.
Normally, it's pretty high, and I suspect it's a pretty good source of slab heat.

Yeah, it's the thermal flywheel thing.

This graph:

...shows the thermal lag at various depths and at various months. It seems to indicate that you could expect to see your ground and cold water temperatures bottom out, after which they will begin go back up, around the end of march.

I'd be interested to know how it really plays out for you.

So the basement floor temperature doesn't directly affect your living space as much as the air temperature of your basement does.

If you were to aim your IR gun at the under side of the floor, while you're in the basement, you would be able to see something about the heat that is radiating down into your cooler basement right now.

If you had a target, like a board with a black tape patch, that was not thermally connected to but in proximity of your basement ceiling, and let it sit for a couple of hours, this would give you info about your air temp down there.

Best,

-AC

[Xringer]

"If you were to aim your IR gun at the under side of the floor, while you're in the basement, you would be able to see something about the heat that is radiating down into your cooler basement right now."

The sump holes in the basement floor are cold, because cold air goes down.
So it's cold down there in the holes.. BUT, I do have one sump with a cover.
It's just a sheet of Coroplas, but it keeps some of the cold out..

There's an access hole in the Coroplas I can use to get a reading about 30" below the slab surface.

Shooting the sump bottom---------Vs---------The floor 2' from the sump hole.


If the cover was insulated, I'll bet that underground temperature would be warmer.. The R-factor of 1 sheet of coro isn't that much..

[AC_Hacker]

Originally Posted by Xringer

"If you were to aim your IR gun at the under side of the floor, while you're in the basement, you would be able to see something about the heat that is radiating down into your cooler basement right now."

I'm sorry I expressed myself so poorly, I was referring to the underside of the floor of your living space. In other words, if you are in your basement and look up, that is the "under side of the floor" I was talking about.

Reason being, you're getting improved economy from your heat pump water heater, but you are losing some economy due to heat migrating downward from your living space.

I'm just trying to figure a way to see that, and how you could reduce that.

You're probably not in the basement all day working at your bench, and some electric radiant heaters could keep you comfortable during those times, so sacrificing your living space heat to your basement 24/7 may not be in the best interest of economy.

-AC

[Xringer]

The living room Sanyo air output is directed right down towards the floor.
So, this video shows the hot-spot of living-room to basement leakage.

http://s46.beta.photobucket.com/user...af5f3.mp4.html

The video (from iPhone4) was better, but I compressed it down to emailing size.

[Xringer]

Here's the new test setup..



Leakage is much less and when the sun is out, the temperature zooms right up!

This is a direct connection of 1 to 100volts (measured) to the 230vac input of the water heater.
After I get some good data for this configuration, I'll look into installing MPPT..