Hi folks, I have a ten room 100+ year old house in Mass.  My question is with an oil boiler with forced hot water baseboard heat, 3 zones, one of which is the hot water zone, can I adapt a geothermal system to that system and how to do it.  I also have an outdoor wood buring furnace that provides most of the heat and hot water for the winter.  I have plenty of land to put a geothermal loop in the ground. Does a heat pump provide sufficient heat for a forced hot water system.  The heating runs a long.  Thanks in advance.

Most geo systems can only give 120° F water. Some can get to 140° F. Most boiler systems need 160° -180°. Geo is not a good fit for an old hot water system.

Can you convert to a forced air system?

which geo systems document that they get to 140? I've heard some manufacturers have claimed this at some trade shows, but when asked directly, they give in and admit that they can't provide 140 deg. steadily.

Sure, they may be able to hit that mark, but I have yet to find out that they sustain it.

Climate Master has this unit.


The THW Series is unlike any other water-to-water heat pump on the market today. The large operating map of the scroll compressor allows high temperature operation, up to 145°F [63°C] leaving load water temperature even at 32°F [0°C] entering source water temperature. The combination of a coaxial (tube-in-tube) heat exchanger for the source (ground loop) side and a brazed plate heat exchanger for the load (heating/hot water) side provides very high efficiencies.

What's the COP when it's producing 145 deg.? What refrigerant and what capacity per ton (btu output per ton) is it when at that temp?

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I can't read.... More specifially I cant read the chart you provided. Can you translate it for me?

On the left hand side you have Source.

I assume EWT is entering water Temp, Flow US GPM is gallons per minute input of water, PSI is pounds per sq inch, and FT is ?

On the Load side you have EWT F 70 which I assume is the temperature you want to extract from the source water to raise the water your heating up to heat the house. The first quetion I have is why is the 5.4 US GPM different then the source flow? Why is there 7.3 US GPM, is this something to do with a 2 stage system?

HC Mbtuh?

Power kW I assume is the amount of energy required to preform this task.

HE Mbtuh?

LWT F?

COP Btu/Btu is a measure of efficency, the higher the number the better the system is. Again, another question. On one column the Source EWT is 70, and on load side it say's its 70 with a COP of 8.9 at 5.4 US GPM? And the COP is 9.7 at 7.3 US GPM? Faster rate of water = better efficency? I would have thought the lower GPM would be more efficent.  

I need a Chart reading for Dummies book.

 

The basic idea of it (what I was wanting to know anyway) is that it can't reach 145 deg. until it has a return water temperature to it of at least 130 deg.

FT = feet of head  for the WPD across the coil in the heat pump.

EWT on the load side is the water temp coming back from the house into the heat pump to be heated.

On a water to water heat pump there are two fluid  circuits.  One is the flow of fluid through the ground loop and through the heat pump, this is the source. The other is the flow of fluid through the house loop and through the heat pump, this is the load.  These are separate circuits and never come in contact with each other.

If you slow the load flow,  then you can get higher temps because the fluid can pick up more heat as it passes through the heat exchanger.  

The reason the COP goes up with higher load flows is the higher flow means you can move more heat away from the heat exchanger.  If you notice both the HC and HE are higher for the higher flow but   the LWT is lower  because the heat is spread out over more GPM.

Hope this helps.