Posted By tuffluckdriller on 17 Feb 2010 02:21 PM

I'm not saying you can't temporarily disable the strip heat. But by temporarily, I don't mean for a few days, or for the whole week. Hopefully your installer is a competent professional, and should be able to competently check out the system. If you haven't contacted them, then they have to just assume it's working properly.

I don't see the harm in disabling the AUX heat in the beginning of the heating season for days, or even weeks. And this is for only is a closed loop systems, since as the heating season progresses, the ground could freeze and the system could lockup. Personally I've had my AUX heat disabled for YEARS, but I have an open loop system so my heat sink is considerably larger than any Close loop system.

Posted By TechGromit on 14 Mar 2011 09:34 AM

Posted By tuffluckdriller on 17 Feb 2010 02:21 PM

I'm not saying you can't temporarily disable the strip heat. But by temporarily, I don't mean for a few days, or for the whole week. Hopefully your installer is a competent professional, and should be able to competently check out the system. If you haven't contacted them, then they have to just assume it's working properly.

I don't see the harm in disabling the AUX heat in the beginning of the heating season for days, or even weeks. And this is for only is a closed loop systems, since as the heating season progresses, the ground could freeze and the system could lockup. Personally I've had my AUX heat disabled for YEARS, but I have an open loop system so my heat sink is considerably larger than any Close loop system.

I would not treat a DX design the same as water source. As mentioned before DX systems count on some down time to allow ground heat to catch-up. Not permiting it to do so could have consequences including damage to ground loops.
J

Posted By trister on 16 Feb 2010 05:19 PM
... Our 3800 sq ft (old) house has some energy envelope issues that were known by the contractor during design. They were probably not readily repairable and include large, single pane, historic windows.
 
... to have monthly electric bills over $400. 

$400 really doesn't sound all that bad to me. I have a 3300 sq ft house in Southern New Jersey (39.5265N, 74.5337W) and my peak electric bill was $475 one month this winter, with $350 the second highest and $300 for the other winter months.  I have a 4 ton Earthlink Primer system (45k BTU) and a 3 ton Goodman ASHP, my electric rates are 15.4 cents per KWH. I guess the real question here is what was your heating bill before you switched to Geothermal? I wager a 3900 sq foot house would have at least $500 gas bill a month (+ 200 electric bill) and over $800 using propane or oil.

My base electric usage is $150 a month without any heating or cooling, what exactly where you expecting your bills to be like with such a large house?