Does anyone have experience with the Kelix Thermacouple System?  We're interested in possibly adding it to our product line.  We'd like to see confirmed BTU outputs, ease of installation, best equipment choices that go with it etc.  They make a number of claims which we would like to explore before going further.

Thanks

Paul Auerbach
Total Green Geothermal
www.TotalGreenUS.com

You can check out ECS in Massachusetts. they are a a distributor. http://welserver.com/WEL0201/ 413.789.3530 They also have one being monitored. It doesn't show much right now But I am told they got 7 tons of cooling out of 300 ft. The spec says it will do 5 tons. It is in best conditions there with high water table. I would like to know if you find out more also as we have looked at these at one time but ended up using something else. The price makes it only useful for areas where other solutions won't work. gonegeo www.energysquid.com

Posted By gonegeo on 23 Nov 2010 05:11 PM 
But I am told they got 7 tons of cooling out of 300 ft. The spec says it will do 5 tons. It is in best conditions there with high water table. 

All of us would like to believe in smaller footprints.
What would be interesting is a conventional double u tube in the same conditions. That would be a comparison I could identify with.
On the flip side let's put them in drier conditions as well.
I will believe the "undiminished returns when I see them.
j

coastal knows all about them,but for some reason he is not talking http://greenbuildingtalk.com/Forums/tabid/53/afv/topic/aff/13/aft/75013/afpg/1/Default.aspx

We are all ready for new stuff, but it has to come with real world data gathered over time. Not the slick sales and marketing of products that we keep seeing.
Eric

Most of these new and improved, superduper, over hyped, no real data yet systems  that claim to reduce amount of drilling needed   cost a lot more than the boring old HDPE loops.

In many cases, you can drill and install HDPE loops that meet the demand for less money than what it would cost to use the new  unproven systems.

As we all know, the conductivity of the ground  is the limiting factor.

I will always be skeptical of those who claim to get more heat out of less ground with a new loop system.

At the IGSHPA show,  I was conversing with a nice guy who was trying to convince me that his loop system was superior (because less drilling was needed) to HDPE loops.  We went through a quick calculation and found that the costs of using his pipe and drilling less were about the same as using HDPE and drilling more.   He felt vindicated until I told him that as a driller I would rather drill more and keep the money than drill less and give him the money.  That was pretty much the end of the conversation.  

Ground conductivity and being in close proximity to lots of ground will always be required. The laws of physics are strictly enforced. I've been here long enough to have read of a half dozen or so schemes involving tanks, weird shaped tubes, etc, and none make any sense thermodynamically nor have withstood scrutiny or proffered up worthy data.

I am going to visit a site that has Thermocouple installed and will try to satisfy my own curiosity. It's been installed for a few years and they should have lots of data to show on extreme/average temps and harvested BTU/hrs.
Since I am one person, if you want to add some questions for me to ask , I will be glad to collect data and share it if possible. I have asked the factory for references before and only received one.
No matter, results probably won't be believable until an IGSHPA or ASHRAE etc.. say so.

I keep the checking the welserver page.

It seems like the Kelix unit hardly ever runs.

When it does run, the loop temps seems to drop pretty fast.


gonegeo,  maybe you could ask them to show the graph over one year instead of 50 hours.

I'd like performance data of HDPE installed on the same site to show "in-situ" superior results.
Joe

There is a HDPE loop on this system.  It runs quite often.







Since we can only see 50 hours of data,  it is hard to draw any conclusions.