Friday, December 12, 2008

Back from Summer

It has been a few months since the last post. Summer has always been our busiest time and this last one was no exception. I am embarrassed to say my blog hasn't been kept up as I would like. Fall should be a good time for me to start back up and write about some relevant topics on the home comfort system.

If you have any topics suggestion feel free to leave a comment or email to mikelee@sandium.com

2 comments:

Sandium: Heating & Air Conditioning Experts said...

dcmeserve said...

I'd be interested to see something about ground-source heat pumps. The bill congress just passed today includes an up-to-$2k incentive for such systems, so interest in these systems may soon increase.

I see installing the heat pump as the first step I should take towards eliminating my household's carbon footprint, as it will replace direct natural-gas burning with use of heat from the ground, plus electricity that (with PG&E) is already 50% carbon-free.

Also, doing this before installing a photovoltaic array on my roof will give me a better picture of my electricity usage, so I'll know better how to size the PV system.

My biggest question is how much land area would be needed for the buried coils, if I used the "trench" setup? Alternatively, if I went with drilling deep holes instead, what's the expense of that? Actually, what are the costs in general of the various options? I'm also interested in coupling to my water heater, and using a variable-speed fan for blowing the heated/cooled air to the vents.

I'm hoping also that this will eliminate noise by replacing the A/C fan in my back yard. Do ground-source heat pumps make any noise?

For my case, my house is 3800 sq. ft, 2 stories. From what I've read, I think that would require a 3 or 4 "ton" system (what is "ton" a measurement of?).

Thanks!

- Doug
October 3, 2008 5:25 PM

Sandium: Heating & Air Conditioning Experts said...

Sandium Heating and Cooling said...

Hi Doug, I hope our phone conversation helps. Some of the items we discussed is in the new post today.
October 10, 2008 11:10 AM