Thoughts of a broke person for geothermal

[waterdigger2]

Heres some thoughts of a broke no body that may get the thoughts of a somebody with deeper pockets thinkin also. I hate payin hi priced electric bills. Prob ever body else does to. Ive thought about things that really get that little money takin meter to really spinnin. Some of the most obvious to me was the Heaters, water heaters, stoves ovens, dryers , fridges prob missed some stuff . Heres my thoughts on some of em.

The heaters and water Would it be possible to do a ground loop system of the depths you needed. And have some sort of a valve up to your roof with some sort of vacume tube so it could get even more heat .

On the refridgeration. Would it be viable for someone to dig a few holes specifically for that so it could have a way to transfer the heat down to the ground like geothermal ?

Have no clue how hot a oven and stove gets to cook with but not sure if it could benifit on the geo. But maybe solar if you could concentrate it ?

[jeff5may]

The major manufacturers have come up with a modified "3 pipe system" that runs off a heat pump. Pipe 1 is hot water, pipe 2 is cold water, and pipe 3 is a return line. The old school equivalent of this had a chiller on the roof and a boiler in the basement. The system is alleged to cover space heating and cooling, clothes drying and refrigeration demand. It can also draw heat from a solar collector. Can't find the link now, but it was someone like Carrier, Trane, or the like. They are teaming up with solar PV and appliance manufacturers to offer a complete home system.

[stevehull]

Waterdigger,

Welcome to the club. There are three things we have in life; energy, time and money. Very, very rarely do all three occur at the same time. Mostly the first two, but family, job and circumstances often limit us to only one (or none).

You are talking about what is called "integrated" technology. Waste heat gets stored for later use; same with cooling.

In 50 years (30?), people will look at our burning fossil fuels and will be as amazed as we are at seeing homes heated only by fireplaces.

For now, I look at what I can do with my limited resources (time, energy and $).


Steve

[waterdigger2]

Originally Posted by jeff5may

The major manufacturers have come up with a modified "3 pipe system" that runs off a heat pump. Pipe 1 is hot water, pipe 2 is cold water, and pipe 3 is a return line. The old school equivalent of this had a chiller on the roof and a boiler in the basement. The system is alleged to cover space heating and cooling, clothes drying and refrigeration demand. It can also draw heat from a solar collector. Can't find the link now, but it was someone like Carrier, Trane, or the like. They are teaming up with solar PV and appliance manufacturers to offer a complete home system.

Another thing that they have came up with that makes them more efficient is the guy i worked for doin geothermal has different zones . If the sun is on the east side of the house and u have the whole house set for 70 it will put more effort on the east side and less on the west vice versa. And they have a setup where durin the day your going to be in one room you can set that room to say 70 degrees and you can set the rest of the house for say 75 saves energy that way.

[AC_Hacker]

Originally Posted by waterdigger2

The heaters and water Would it be possible to do a ground loop system of the depths you needed. And have some sort of a valve up to your roof with some sort of vacume tube so it could get even more heat.

Yes, you can do that, but there is an upper limit to how hot and be able to use a heat pump. If you get your refrigerant too hot, it may behave in an unpredictable manner.

Originally Posted by waterdigger2

On the refridgeration. Would it be viable for someone to dig a few holes specifically for that so it could have a way to transfer the heat down to the ground like geothermal ?

Good thinking, but you don't need to dig a new hole... just use your loop for storing heat and harvesting heat.

Originally Posted by waterdigger2

Have no clue how hot a oven and stove gets to cook with but not sure if it could benifit on the geo. But maybe solar if you could concentrate it ?

The geo heat we are working with is termed 'low temperature geothermal', to not confuse it with high temperature heat that comes up from the magma core.

By using a heat pump we can get useful heat to heat our homes, but in most cases, it maxes out at a bit over 120F. Too low to cook with.

But keep those ideas flowing! Too many people are stuck with wearing blinders. Sounds like you may not have that problem.

-AC

[NiHaoMike]

The discharge line might just get hot enough to cook on if the compression ratio is high, but that would be at the upper end of where compressors are supposed to operate at.

Solid state heat pumps can easily operate hot enough, but it turns out that induction heating is the most efficient way to cook.

[WyrTwister]

Originally Posted by waterdigger2

Heres some thoughts of a broke no body that may get the thoughts of a somebody with deeper pockets thinkin also. I hate payin hi priced electric bills. Prob ever body else does to. Ive thought about things that really get that little money takin meter to really spinnin. Some of the most obvious to me was the Heaters, water heaters, stoves ovens, dryers , fridges prob missed some stuff . Heres my thoughts on some of em.

The heaters and water Would it be possible to do a ground loop system of the depths you needed. And have some sort of a valve up to your roof with some sort of vacume tube so it could get even more heat .

On the refridgeration. Would it be viable for someone to dig a few holes specifically for that so it could have a way to transfer the heat down to the ground like geothermal ?

Have no clue how hot a oven and stove gets to cook with but not sure if it could benifit on the geo. But maybe solar if you could concentrate it ?

For most people , a cook stove is not on enough hours per month to be a major cost factor . Plus , in the winter , it just contributes to heating the house .

I suspect , the same is true for the frig & freezer .

Probably , the dryer too ? Unless you have lots of kids and are doing lots of laundry .

If you have natural gas , a gas cook stove and dryer reduces those costs even more .

For return on investment , concentrate on space heating / cooling and water heating .

Actually , using solar to pre-heat water would probably be the best pay back ?

God bless
Wyr

God bless
Wyr

[waterdigger2]

Originally Posted by WyrTwister

For most people , a cook stove is not on enough hours per month to be a major cost factor . Plus , in the winter , it just contributes to heating the house .

I suspect , the same is true for the frig & freezer .

Probably , the dryer too ? Unless you have lots of kids and are doing lots of laundry .

If you have natural gas , a gas cook stove and dryer reduces those costs even more .

For return on investment , concentrate on space heating / cooling and water heating .

Actually , using solar to pre-heat water would probably be the best pay back ?

God bless
Wyr

God bless
Wyr

Our dryer is constantly going . It takes a good bit of power consumption here. What i am trying to do is make everything as efficient as possible. Then build solar pannels with on grid connection so i wont have nearly as high of a electric bill

[waterdigger2]

We only heat one room in the house thats the bedroom. Last week when it got into the 20s here . I walked into the kitchen found that my glass of water had frozen .

[NiHaoMike]

Originally Posted by waterdigger2

Our dryer is constantly going . It takes a good bit of power consumption here. What i am trying to do is make everything as efficient as possible. Then build solar pannels with on grid connection so i wont have nearly as high of a electric bill

Then it can make sense to use a desuperheater to run it. Or just blow the heated air over the clothes and have a dehumidifying coil (enabled with a solenoid valve) to prevent excessive humidity.