We've read Clark's recent account of a local installer giving a black eye to our product, I'd like to hear some other stories. Pretending they don't exist offers us no benefit. Better, I think, to point out the benefit of careful contractor screening and refrences. Happy endings would be great as well.
Joe

How about a million dollar beachfront house originally loaded with 4 tons, retrofitted with a 6 ton and

1) 113 EWT

2) 1.40" ESP

3) a bottom floor zone with just 4 supply registers (one of which is a small bathroom register) required to flow enough air for the 6 ton at low stage.

The bottom floor zone includes the master bedroom - nice and quiet at night - NOT!

A second loop pump and barometric bypass damper were later added, but EWT was still well over 100.

No way that system will ever compete with air source units on price, noise, or efficiency.

There have been to many to count..... The most repeated horification is open loop package units being installed in un heated spaces all over the house. In the summer the lines sweat and ruin drywall ect. In winter they freeze at night and in the morning thaw out and ruin everything.

One dealer sent me a plan to do the load calc on. 1800 sf main level, with about 1500 sf unconditioned basement.

From his info, the load came to 32,000 BTUh heating.

These people have a warm water spring (58 deg. year round, HIGH iron and some sulfur content, flowing approx. 50-75 gpm.) within 300' of the home. Because of the high iron and sulfur content, they didn't want an open loop. So, the recommendation, because of warmer ground (this is in Wyoming, which should have seen 45 deg. earth), was a 3 ton.

3 days ago, he calls me and tells me the heat pump is not heating the home. Two things happened.
1. He hadn't hooked up the auxiliary heat. It had been running on just geo, 100% of the time.
2. He hadn't verified that there was any insulation in the attic, and the windows are single pane aluminum frame. There's no insulation in the attic, at all. Plus, the walls are a log wall, framed and sheetrocked inside, with no insulation, and outside has aluminum siding, with no insulation. He had be told that it had R-19 batting (which is crappy insulation, but some is better than none).

So, upon recalculation, the load showed to be about 108,000 BTUh heating!! With the 10 kW strip heat, and the 3 ton heat pump, he was getting a max of 64-66K BTUh output.

The owner, a rich guy that knows better, apparently, refused to put any insulation in the attic to remedy the problem. He claimed that 2 other HVAC guys told him that would have no effect. Besides, the oil furnace (185,000 BTUh capacity) was enough to do it before. He figured the heat pump sucks and wanted it changed back to an oil furnace.

Then Friday, I got a call from this installer telling me that the owner changed his mind and decided to blow in an R-50 cellulose in the attic. This alone should drop the load of the house down to 48,000-54,000 BTUh.

Anyway, the system should perform a lot better, now that the home is insulated.

Bah, insulation is for wimps, Real men don't need no stinking insulation.

lol TG.
Off forum, but my experience today was in steam boilers. East coast guys should appreciate this. The installer was so ignorant he employed a swing check on the return of a resi. steamer (abandoned around WWI in favor of the Hartford loop named for the insurance co. that didn't want to pay for more burned down buildings). Piping so bad a Weil McClain is on it's second heat exchanger in 9 years. Owner employed the cheaper contractor to repair the work of the first one (I wanted extra money for re-pipe) and is now paying me to fix the work of second contractor.
A reminder that lowest bidder is not cheapest.
If Homeowners would like to share the "happy endings" of second contractors who fixed their geo woes, that would fit this thread nicely as well.
J