Amount of water Used in an open loop system?
Last Post 08 Mar 2008 11:39 AM by hedgehog. 5 Replies.
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Naudi2uUser is Offline
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07 Mar 2008 02:40 PM
In a open loop system, starting with well water at ~55F.  How many gallons are needed to produce X amount of BTU's.  I am looking for approximate numbers.  I know that there is other factors, like efficiently of unit.  Say 100 gl will produce 30000 per hour,  or is it 1000 or 100000?  I have found that the well needs produce from 6 to 10 gallons per Minute.  Thank you
Carlo<br><br>
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07 Mar 2008 07:10 PM
The formula is Delta T * GPM* 500 = BTHh.

So if you take 10° out of the well water and you have 10 GPM *500 then you have 50,000 BTUh
Dewayne Dean

<br>www.PalaceGeothermal.com<br>Why settle for 90% when you can have 400%<br>We heat and cool with dirt!<br>visit- http://welserver.com/WEL0114/- to see my system
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07 Mar 2008 07:26 PM
Ok Lets say that my house by heat loss need 50,000 btu  and my well supplies 10 gpm, the heat pump removes 10F.  How much water is used per hour at a certian Oustside temp.  I know there is a lot of veriables. 
 What I am trying to wrap my head around is,  How much water output I will be dealing with.  I found on one site that output is around 6,000 gallons per day!   That is way more than I know what to do with.  Plus it sounds very high to me.  I hope this make sence to you.
Carlo<br><br>
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07 Mar 2008 07:44 PM
So if your heat loss is 50,000 btuh and your heat pump is running non stop in the middle of the winter, then at 10 gpm * 60 minutes in an hour * 24 hours in a day .

So 10 *60 * 24 = 14,400 gallons in a day. This would only happen on a day when it was cold enough out side to keep you heat pump going non stop. This shouldn't happen very often.. If your heat pump runs 50% of the time, then you have 7,200 in a day. 25% then 3600. Any way you look at it, it is a lot of water.
Dewayne Dean

<br>www.PalaceGeothermal.com<br>Why settle for 90% when you can have 400%<br>We heat and cool with dirt!<br>visit- http://welserver.com/WEL0114/- to see my system
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07 Mar 2008 08:02 PM
Wow that is alot!   If that water is dumped on one acre that would = 1/2 inch of rain per acre per day.  That I could deal with in middle of summer, but in the winter.   Thanks for the help!
Carlo<br><br>
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08 Mar 2008 11:39 AM
for a real world example, when i lived on the farm i heated a poorly insulated 1300 sq ft bungalow with a 3.5ton, my incoming water temps were about 58, my supply well was 47 feet deep, and i required 4 to 5 gpm early in the winter, later in the winter, close to spring i would need 5 to 6 gpms to keep it from freezing up, the well's capacity was around 6 gpm so i kept close tabs on it and ran it close to the edge most of the time, as the well also supplied my domestic water. my return well was a old wooden cribbed well that was 20 feet deep or so and only 15 feet from my supply well, i suspect the supply well was getting cooled off from the return well, this would explain why i need more water later in the winter. the return wel was not capable of accepting all the water, it over flowed daily, ran into a near by creek. this is southern saskatchewan canada, winter temps are normaly -20, sometimes dipping down to -40. this system managed to keep up but probably ran 50 minutes an hour when it was -40, or -20 and windy, so it used a considerable amount of water. in the event of a freeze up, i would switch it over to AC for a minute, you could literaly see the chunks of ice going through the flow meter. do to poor water quality this system needed regular maintainance. i had a pre filter that needed weekly cleaning, once a year i had to flush the heatpump with muriatic acid (copronickel coil required). i am much happier with my closed loop, and well insulated house.
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