The boring machine in position.
System design and General Contractor: Performance Systems Contracting, Ithaca, NY
Ground field and heat pump contruction and installation by Advanced Geothermal Technology, Reading, PA
for the explanation and graphic: http://www.earthlinked.com/residential/how-it-works
[Please click on the small images to see a larger version.]
The boring machine in position.
The first attempt at seven 60' bores at 30 degrees, which proved unsatisfactory, due
to problems with soil colapsing in to the holes. After the second attempt we changed
the scheme to ten 40' bores at 45 degrees. This time it worked.
The trench is dug from the foundation to the site of the borings.
A pit is created at the boring site for connecting the manifolds and lines to the house.
The copper lines from the loops in the borings are brazed to the manifolds and to the
lines to the house.
The system is sealed at the cellar entrance and pressure tested to 450 p.s.i.
The pit and borings are filed with a special grade of sand, thoroughly saturated with
water and the excavation is refilled. A temporary vent is left in place over the pit
site until the heat pump, hot water system, and fan-coil unit are installed. We probably
wont attempt reseeding until next spring.
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The inside work begins.
Cinder block cuts like butter. That's our Performance Systems Contracting Project
Manager, Glynn Beebe taking the hands on approach.
The refrigerant lines are in place, insulated, and brazed to the heat
pump fittings. The PVC with the yellow stripe runs to the sand pit
for moisture replacement, if needed.
The heat pump is contained in an insulated box, on a platform.
The orange yard stick leaning against the heat pump housing
gives a relative indication of the size: quite compact.
The gray box mounted on the old chimney base houses the heat
exchanger for the hot water tank. The hot water tank is the large
gray cyclinder on the right. It will provide hot water for washing
and as a reserve heat source for the fan-coil hot-air heat.
The fan-coil unit is installed with an adaptor to the existing air distribution plenum.
The return air is collected in the base through a custom return air plenum. The heat
pump is seen in the background.
This large round duct connects the old return air to the base.
A new, programmable thermostatic control is included. There are settings for both
cooling and heating.
This view shows the fan-coil unit on the left. The heat pump in on a platform behind
a steel pole near the center of the picture. The hot water tank is on the right. The small
unit on the floor, next to the fan-coil is a pump to handle any condensation from the
cooling element. We don't expect to use it very much.
This is the contact heat exchanger for to heat our hot water. The hot water heater also
acts as a supplemental heat source and has electric elements, in case the heat pump
is ever insufficient. We don't expect to need that capability, but it's a good back up.
Since the heat exchanger was exposed it seemed only right to expose the heat pump.
Only the removal of the old fuel tank waits for another day.
We are replacing the old steel hot air ducts with insulated, flexible duct, which is much
quieter. There's also some more
insulating of the foundation and probably an additional
return air run on our to-do list.
The monitoring system we were looking forward to was removed from the contract and
rebated, but we may install that system ourselves at some time.
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