Pond/Lake loop design
Last Post 12 Aug 2016 09:20 AM by jonr. 3 Replies.
Printer Friendly
Sort:
PrevPrev NextNext
You are not authorized to post a reply.
Author Messages
alk-3User is Offline
New Member
New Member
Send Private Message
Posts:2

--
09 Aug 2016 11:20 PM
Hello everyone! I've been a long time lurker, and have learned a lot! this is my first question: I have had a 4 ton geothermal lake loop system installed. The pipe is standard 1-¼" poly pipe that is laid in a trench for about 80 feet from my home to the lake. At the lake it goes out in the water an additional 1300 or so feet. There is about a 300 foot header, then 2 parallel loops at the end of the header of 1000 feet total the pipe is anywhere from 12 feet deep to 20 feet deep once its out into the lake. the other day while swimming i noticed the header pipes were laying right tight against one another on the bottom, so i dove down to separate them thinking this would be better for thermal dissipation but the installer has apparently zip tied them together. Is there any reason i should go down, clip the zip ties and separate the inbound and outbound header pipes? or does this even matter? My thinking is that the warmer inbound pipe will be cooled by the colder outbound pipe (in a heating application) and therefor be somewhat less efficient than if the two pipes were separated by some space. some other information: the property is in Muskoka Canada where we will only ever use the system for heat, no AC at all. the lake is large enough to support the system, its probably a 200 acre lake if i had to guess.. maybe more. I hope this is a clear enough situation to get some answers on this.
jonrUser is Offline
Senior Member
Senior Member
Send Private Message
Posts:5341

--
10 Aug 2016 11:15 AM
Yes, you will get slightly better performance by separating supply and return pipes. And by moving them up off the bottom. You could measure delta-Ts before and after and report the results here.
alk-3User is Offline
New Member
New Member
Send Private Message
Posts:2

--
11 Aug 2016 09:06 PM
the system isnt hooked up and running yet so i can't get any real numbers.
By "slightly better" do you think its worth correcting? it would require someone diving down and snipping each zip tie, then moving the pipes. a fairly big job.
This company comes well regraded so i wonder why they would do it this way. Can you think of any benefits to having them zip tied together?
jonrUser is Offline
Senior Member
Senior Member
Send Private Message
Posts:5341

--
12 Aug 2016 09:20 AM
I doubt it is worth the work involved. There won't be much temperature difference between the two pipes.
You are not authorized to post a reply.

Active Forums 4.1
Membership Membership: Latest New User Latest: croccohvacusa New Today New Today: 1 New Yesterday New Yesterday: 0 User Count Overall: 35027
People Online People Online: Visitors Visitors: 273 Members Members: 0 Total Total: 273
Copyright 2011 by BuildCentral, Inc.   Terms Of Use  Privacy Statement