Just try it...see how long it takes for recovery. Doesn't hurt to experiment.

If the recovery from 19 to 22 involves much use of aux strips where if left at 22 geo alone would carry the load, you'll be sorry when the electricity bill comes. Some thermostats are or can be made smart enough to avoid this.

If you do experiment, read your kwh meter each evening and each morning after recovery, estimate degree days, and compare results.

In the past when I say try setting back no more than 2 degrees, I mean Fahrenheit not Celcius. Don't even think about sending me your electric bill.  

ya i guess i will try it out

my installer is still going to come because i want him to check and make sure its all working and give me some numbers.

thus far i reduced my electricity usage per day by 60-70kW.

right now im using 110Kw versus 180 to 190.

im trying to keep 1C down on main floor and ditto upstairs during the day to see if it brings down usage further.

the system is only needing stage1 to keep the temperature at our desired level

so im hoping this was the solution.  i remember my installer also mentioning that the first year there are air pockets in the ground still and the loop doesnt perforrm at 100%  he said the following year it will be even better.

is this true?

What kind of closed loop is this again (I can't go through 7 pages right now)? Vertical, horizontal trench, horizontal bore, slinky?

Im guessing its a horizontal trench

he drug 6-7 feet down and put the pipe down from the side of my house towards the back.  4 rows of that im guessing 300 to 400 feet each row.

1200 to 1600 ft of pipe for 9 tons? Anyone else thinking way short looped?

Is there one straight line of black poly pipe in each trench? Or more than one? Or do you have "slinky-coils" where there's actually a few thousand feet of coiled poly pipe laid in each 400 ft. trench.

Hmm im guessing its that many feet.

all I can see is 4 pipes coming into our home from the side foundation.

Im guessing In/Out each pair?

It could be evne more then 400 feet. im just guessing.

I dont really know how long my lot is. Im assuming its 200 250 feet wide and probably 400 to 600 feet deep. But also come to think of it i think they layed it out in circles in the trench. is that what slinky is?

how many feet of pipe would be needed for 9 tons ?

Posted By velcomrob on 23 Feb 2010 01:53 AM

Hmm im guessing its that many feet.

all I can see is 4 pipes coming into our home from the side foundation.

Im guessing In/Out each pair?

It could be evne more then 400 feet. im just guessing.

I dont really know how long my lot is. Im assuming its 200 250 feet wide and probably 400 to 600 feet deep. But also come to think of it i think they layed it out in circles in the trench. is that what slinky is?

how many feet of pipe would be needed for 9 tons ?

Yep, slinky loop means layed out in circles. See this for examples: http://images.google.ca/images?q=slinky%20ground%20loop.

Each ton may need 400 to 1000 ft of pipe, but it depends a lot on ground conditions (clay, sand, moisture, depth, ground temp, etc).   A slinky loop might coil 1000 feet of pipe into not much more than 100 feet of trench. I know very little about ground loops (I'm using open loop myself) , but I'd guess that 6000 to 8000 ft of pipe in a slinky loop config might sound about right for 9 tons.  I'm thinking that worrying about the loop design is getting off track - your quote or bill from your installer should tell you what you need to know about the loop, and we should really be focusing on those water and air temp numbers to figure out if your system is performing OK.