Well I got my first electric bill to compare to what I had last year. This gives me hard numbers to compare the old system to the new system and It's disappointly higher. Average temp Dec 07, 42 degrees, Average Temp Dec 08, 41 Degrees. Although I don't have exact figures to go by, the electric usage bar compared to last year is higher. I used about 250 KWh more this year for the same month over last year, and I'm running a supposely more effiecent system with a desuperheater.  So I'm wondering if something isn't set up correctly on the system. It's set for 6 Gallon per minute now, perhaps that's too low, and it's running longer than it should? If you adjust the GPM on the system can you expect different results? Perhaps there's a more optimal setting?

Any suggestions?

TG sorry to hear ... If your EWT is around 50° then your heat pump should do fine on 2 gpm/ton. I don't remember what size your heat pump is. Increasing the flow will not improve anything.

How sure are you that the HP is responsible for the increased usage?

Hi Tech, did you have geothermal all along? I had oil from the past year and this is the first time I have geothermal. I was so surprised with my electric bill too. I used up more 1600 KWH this Month and my bill skyrocketed. The contractor adjust the thermostat from comfort level to economy level (whatever that means). I was telling him before that the Aux heat has been kicking in at times. I hope it gets better this coming month.

I used to pay about $100 per month (gas and electric) and now has spiked to $315.

It's a 4 ton system, so 8 GPM would be a better match. I checked the Water furance specs for my system and the specifications say 12 GPM. The water meter only goes up to 10 GPM, I kicked it up just passed 10 GPM, so I'm running 11, maybe 12 GPM, I'll let it run like that for a month and see what the effects are.

There's nothing new in the house that i didn't have before, Actually all the kitchen appliances are new, including a Very energy efficient dishwasher, and I installed lots fluorescent lights, the bills should be lower, NOT higher. There was a slight rate hike, but I'm still using more KWh than the same time last year.  The only major change is a Desupersuper, and I took away the Electronic Filter and replaced with with a cartridge filter.
 
Perhaps 12 GPM is too high, but 6 GPM seems too low. Depending on what i see next month, I may lower it down to 10 GPM.

Yes, my system is a replacement system for an existing system that was at End of life, it was a Florida Heat pump that was 17 years old.

TG, I go with 12 GPM. Here is why:
4 ton system = 48000 btu per hour or 800 btu per minute output.
If we assume your open loop system can achieve EWT - LWT = 8 degrees, 100 pounds of water has to go trough it in a minute to give you 800 btus.
1 gal of water weighs 8.34 pounds, which is to say 100 / 8.34 = 11.99 gal per minute.

Regards, Masoud

Tech, Since you had your geo for years. How much were your bills during winter season? (max. electric bill). We both live in New Jersey (I am in north part). Everything is new to me so I am not sure if my bill is normal. We had a few days of cold days few weeks ago (in 20's) so I guess the reason is that and the Aux heat has been kicking in a lot.

Today, we have a snowy day and the weather again is in the 20's. I caught the Aux heat on at around 8AM and reduce the thermostat by one degree. As I said, the contractor has adjusted the thermostat to Economy level so maybe that will help ease the bill.

Tech I can't remember, but have you disabled the e-heat?

Also if you can get a reading of the coolant going out to the field and returning. I noticed if I ran with one pump (at minimum flow requirement) I saw about a 4.5* delta, with both pumps running I see about 2.5*F

TG,

By some chance, do you have a Water Furnace Envision heat pump with a desuperheater?

I was suprised to learn that my electric bill was $173.00 for November. I was thinking it was going to be $500 the way the unit was running. I have a tranquility 27 and water to water infloor heating unit as well. Dec will likely be more as my infloor unit cacked 2 days ago and the basement is FREEZING!. Not to mention the cold snap we are going through in Alberta right now.


http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/city/pages/ab-50_metric_e.html

By some chance, no, it's a Water Furnace Priemer P046 heat pump with desuperheater. 
 

Maybe we all should consider eventually going solar to cut the elect. bill down....Has anyone investigated how efficient those systems are now

would a solar system possibly be able to power a Geo unit?

Not directly.

A photovoltaic array could offset some or all of the electricity used by a geo system in states where net metering is in use.

Tech, have you checked the degree days for your area?
http://www.degreedays.net is a good site to get information.
I'm seeing that for 70 degrees F in the Caldwell, NJ area, Nov. of 2008 had 822 degree days, where as 2007 had 856, and 2006 had only 635, so it looks like yes your Nov bill should be down compared to last year. Does your bill include the time when your system had the auxillary still working and it kicked in to recover heat from a setback when the power was out?
You could use the degreedays.net measure to break out by days and see if your heating needs are apples to apples.