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Join Us In Our Quest For The Testo 560 RSA. Click Vader To Join The Thread

Zeroing Your Analog Gauges Is Not The Equivalent Of Calibrating Them. Coming Next Spring We Dissect The Manifold - The Valves - The Analogs and The Digitals In Our HVACPROTech® Exclusive - Mainfold Gauges: [Φ The Definitive Guide]

Combustion Analyzers Are Not What They Used To Be....Advanced Sensor Technologies Combined With Digital Accuracy Equals Some Of The Most Sophisticated Hand Held Analysis Instruments Our Trade Has Ever Seen. Click The Testo Banner Below For Specifications - Detailed Application Guides & Manuals Or Click The TruTech Tools Logo In Our Recommended Links And Enjoy A Limited Time 5% Discount Offer Exclusive To HVACPROTech® Members. Watch This Section Of The Homepage For New Combustion Analysis Articles To Get You Ready For The Upcoming Season.

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The Evolution Of The Manifold Gauge

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Read our Interview With the Designer and Founder of the Digi-Cool® DRSA™ and Follow the 20 Year Evolution From the BTD to the DRSA™ 1200 Signature Series Exclusively in our Digital Instruments Forum

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On a two speed A/C would it be a good idea to put a speed control on the condenser fan motor?

Question

Will this help Dehumidify on the slower speed?

The Question

bullet points from now on means I working on my unit Wink

Below is a listing of free software programs developed by instructors and students of the University of Alabama. The programs are provided at no cost. The list below is not a direct link to the downloads, but rather just a list of what they have. Download the programs here: http://www.geokiss.com/hsoftware.htm

Ground Source Heat Pump Design
Keep It Simple & Solid

Several of these programs contain 'macros' which required the
Excel macro security level to be set at Medium.
Instructions for Setting Macro Security level

This suite of simplified HVAC software has been developed by the instructor and students of the HVAC and Energy Conservation courses at The University of Alabama. It attempts to follow basic ASHRAE calculation procedures. The programs are provided at no cost to the public. We welcome comments and suggestions.

HVACPowDen08a.xls (2.4MB download) is a program for quickly estimating the required capacity and electrical demand of cooling and heating equipment for 30 different building types in the 10 US climate zones. Results are expressed in cooling tons, Btu/hr-ft2, total kW demand, and W/ft2. Program is now integrated with HVACSysEff.xls. Developed as part of an EPA-sponsored Energy Star Buildings project.
HVACPowDenInstructions
E-Ductulator06 (282kB download) is a program for designing air distribution systems and computing losses with the Equal Friction/Equivalent Length method. New equivalent length tables for rectangular and round duct fittings with friction options for metal duct, spiral duct, duct liners, duct board, and flex duct. Register, diffuser, and filter (for MERV = 4, 6, 8, 11, and 14) losses also included.
E-PipeAlator08 (395kB download) is a program for designing water distribution systems and computing losses. Program handles water and water-glycol mixtures, (temperature corrected) in steel, cast iron, polyethylene, PVC and copper (a new feature) piping. Equivalent lengths for common fittings automatically entered. Heat exchanger, valve, and flow control valve losses also considered. New GSHP piping example calculations and figures have been added.

PsychProcess06 (133 kB download) is a program for computing the properties (enthalpy, specific volume, humidity ratio, relative humidity, specific heat, and dew point). It also calculates resulting properties for air mixing, cooling, and heat recovery. Total, sensible, and latent capacities computed for cooling and heat recovery processes.

ResLoad06a (460kB download) - A Residential Heating and Cooling Load Calculation program based on the 2001 ASHRAE Handbook of Fundamentals and HVAC Simplified (available from ASHRAE).

TideLoad06B - Heating and Cooling Load Calculation Spreadsheet (674 kB download) - Eight Zones with condensed CLTD/CLF/SCL tables. Includes traditional sensible load calculations plus new latent loads, heat recovery unit adjustments, and duct loss/gain options. New Worksheet for computing ASHRAE Standard 62.1-2004 ventilation air requirements. Excel Program is unlocked so user can add more zones and expand capabilities if adventuresome.

Instructions for TideLoad06B(68 kB download)

HVACSysEff06 is a program to compute the net system efficiency of HVAC systems. Includes consideration of auxiliary demand and heat penalty.

A-AHPCorrect07 is a program to correct the cooling performance of a model line of air-to-air heat pumps for various outdoor air temperatures, indoor temperatures, and indoor air flow rates. Performance correction of other product lines can also be used by entering nominal performance data in a “MfgData” worksheet.

DuctCostCalc04 (61kB download) - A Spreadsheet to compute the cost of ductwork – Rectangular and Round Metal, Insulation, Duct Board, Flex Duct

W-AHPCorrect04 (61kB download)- A Program to correct the performance of Water-to-Air heat pumps for various air and water temperature and flows.

BAMALOAD (3.27 MB download) - A Cooling & Heating Load Calculation Program with sensible, latent, & total loads. Based on CTLD/CLF Method. Output at maximum dry bulb, maximum wet bulb, and for all bin temperature at 30 locations. Developed by Sanjay Mahapatra, MSME.

Psychrometrics (44 kB download) - A FREE program developed by Lan Xie

NetLoopCost (17 kB download) - A FREE Spreadsheet to compute the cost of installing and grouting vertical ground loops

R-Value and U-Value Calculator and Table (46 kB download)

Attic Duct Heat Loss and Heat Gain Calculator (25 kB download)

Earth Connection

In heating mode, heat is extracted from the fluid in the earth connection by the geothermal heat pump and distributed to the home or building -- typically through a system of air ducts. Cooler air from the building is returned to the geothermal heat pump, where it cools the fluid flowing to the earth connection. The fluid is then re-warmed as it flows through the earth connection.

In cooling mode, the process is reversed. The relatively cool fluid from the earth connection absorbs heat from the building and transfers it to the ground.

Earth Connection
GeoExchange systems use the earth as a heat source and heat sink. A series of pipes, commonly called a "loop," carry a fluid used to connect the GeoExchange system's heat pump to the earth. Most commonly, the loops contain only water or a water and antifreeze mixture. The technical term for this part of the system is "ground heat exchanger."

Geothermal Heat Pump
The geothermal heat pump is packaged in a single cabinet, and includes the compressor, loop-to-refrigerant heat exchanger, and controls. Systems that distribute heat using ducted air also contain the air handler, duct fan, filter, refrigerant-to-air heat exchanger, and condensate removal system for air conditioning. For home installations, the geothermal heat pump cabinet is usually located in a basement, crawl space, attic, or closet.

In commercial installations, it may be hung above a ceiling or installed as a self-contained console, refrigerant-to-air heat exchanger, and condensate removal system for air conditioning. For home installations, the geothermal heat pump cabinet is usually located in a basement, attic, or closet.

Distribution Subsystem
Most residential GeoExchange systems use conventional ductwork to distribute hot or cold air and to provide humidity control. Hydronic or circulating fluid systems use a special water-to-water heat pump with one or more fan-coil units, baseboard radiators, or under-floor circulating pipes. Properly sized, constructed, and sealed ducts are essential to maintain system efficiency. Ducts must be well insulated and, whenever possible, located inside of the building's thermal envelope (conditioned space).

GeoExchange Systems for large commercial buildings, such as schools and offices, often use a different arrangement. Multiple heat pumps (perhaps one for each classroom or office) are attached to the same earth connection by a loop inside the building. This allows each area of the building to be individually controlled.

The heat pumps on the sunny side of the building may provide cooling while those on the shady side are providing heat. This arrangement is very economical, as heat is merely being transferred from one area of the building to another, with the earth connection serving as the heat source or heat sink only for the difference between the building's heating and cooling needs.

Water Heating
Many residential-sized systems installed today are equipped with desuperheaters to provide domestic hot water when the system is providing heat or air conditioning. The desuperheater is a small auxiliary heat exchanger at the compressor outlet. It transfers excess heat from the compressed gas to a water line that circulates water to the house's hot water tank. In summer, when the air conditioning runs frequently, a desuperheater may provide all the hot water needed by a household. It can provide four to eight gallons of hot water per ton of cooling capacity each hour it operates. A desuperheater provides less hot water during the winter, and none when the system is not operating.

Because the heat pump is so much more efficient than other means of water heating, manufacturers are beginning to offer "triple function," "full condensing," or "on demand" systems that use a separate heat exchanger to meet all of a household's hot water needs. This system usually involves a subsystem in the heat pump that uses GeoExchangeSM to heat the water when the main unit is not heating or cooling the building as well as when the main system is operating. These units provide cost-effective hot water heating as quickly as any competing system.

A condensing boiler is a hot water heating device designed to recover energy normally discharged to the atmosphere through the flue. When a condensing boiler is working at peak efficiency the water vapour produced by the burning of gas or oil in the boiler condenses back into liquid water - hence the name "condensing boiler". The condensation of exhaust gases releases the latent heat of vaporization of the water, a more significant source of energy than the transfer of heat by cooling the vapour. By recovering the heat produced as water vapour, a condensing boiler will regain 970btuh/pound of condensate(the water vapour released whenever you burn fossil fuels).

Condensing boilers are now largely replacing earlier, "conventional" designs in powering domestic central heating systems in Europe and to a lesser degree in North America. The Netherlands was probably the first country to take them up in a large way. In Europe, their installation is strongly advocated by pressure groups and government bodies concerned with reducing energy use. In the United Kingdom, for example, since 2005 all new gas central-heating boilers fitted in England and Wales must be high-efficiency condensing boilers unless there are exceptional circumstances, and the same will apply to oil-fired boilers from 1st April 2007 (warm air central heating systems are exempt from these regulations). In the United States the there is a tax rebate for the installation of condensing boilers. In Western Canada energy suppliers now offer energy rebates when these systems are installed in multi-unit dwellings. The increase in natural gas prices in North America has encouraged the retrofit of existing boiler installations with condensing equipment.

Condensing boiler manufacturers claim that up to 98% thermal efficiency of fuel conversion can be achieved in normal domestic use, compared to 70%-80% with a conventional design. Typical condensing boiler efficiencies are around 90%, which brings most brands of condensing gas boiler in to the highest categories for energy efficiency; in the UK they receive a "SEDBUK" Band A or B energy efficiency rating, while in North America they typically receive an Eco Logo and/or Energy Star Certification. They have a reputation for being less reliable and require professional installational and regular service and may suffer for the lack of familiarity with them among installers and plumbers. In reality, gas condensing boilers have only one extra element to be installed - the drain pipe for the condensate collected during operation. This comprises a short length of inexpensive plastic waste pipe. The water that condenses out tends to be mildly acidic because of the impurities in the fuel, chiefly sulphur and nitrogen, however no special treatment is necessary in most applications; also, the relevant parts of the boiler have to be constructed of materials that will withstand this acidity, typically aluminum. Since the final exhaust from a condensing boiler has a lower temperature than the exhaust from a conventional boiler a fan is always required to expel it, with the additional benefit of allowing the use of low-temperature exhaust piping (typically PVC in domestic applications) without insulation or chimney requirements. This allows for the added benefit of flexibility of installation location.

One UK company, Atmos Heating Systems, have patented a drain free system which negates the need for a drain pipe.

Condensing boilers are up to 50% more expensive to buy and install than conventional types in the UK and the US. However, as of 2006, at UK prices the extra cost of installing a condensing boiler should be recovered in around 2-3 years[citation needed] through lower fuel use, and 2-5 years[citation needed] at US prices. Obviously the exact figure will depend on the efficiency of the original boiler installation and costs associated with the new boiler installation.

I don't know if this is a phenomena that is just occurring among the hacks around here or if it's going on in other areas as well, but......this week in particular we have had a rash of calls from folks with brand new equipment, or I should say new evaporators and condensers at least. Calling to say we just had this installed and it's not cooling as well as our old one. My first question invariably is why didn't you call the company that installed it back out - oh, we have several times they can't find the problem. Thereby my classification of hack.

What they are doing is taking A coils out of the case and installing N coils because obviously the N coil requires less head room than a 13 or 14 SEER A coil. What they are not doing is blocking off the N coil so that airflow is directed through the coil and not bypassing it for the most part. The pressures are usually slightly less than normal on the suction side and significantly higher on the head side. So the first thing an inexperienced tech does is spray out the condenser and bump the charge. Four seperate 410A systems were so grossly overcharged that the high pressure switch was opening every 2 minutes. The overcharge is really discernible when the airflow issue is corrected.

Just a heads up like I said it may just be here.

Sup everyone, long time since I posted here.

My sister is doing a presentation for a class to make our house more energy efficient. She wanted to know a ballpark figure of the total cost of installing a vertical closed loop geothermal system for a 1900sq foot home on non rocky IL property.

Is there such a thing as a standard rating used by equipment manufacturers, when calculating the seer rating of the system, for the static pressure rating applied to the ECM indoor motor?

Basically, at what point, in static pressure, do they measure the watts used by the ECM motor?

..had my first experience with one of these..."constant" variable speed? It confused me a little, not having to set dip switches, or either I didn't set it up correctly...somebody want to help me out here? Razz

Essential Innovations Signs MOU in China for Unique Geothermal Loop-Field Technology

BELLINGHAM, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Essential Innovations Technology Corp. (OTCBB:ESIV) is excited to announce that its wholly-owned Canadian subsidiary, Essential Innovations Corp., has signed a Memorandum of Understanding that gives the Company the exclusive global right to market and private label a totally unique geothermal loop-field technology under the EI brand name. Under the terms of the MOU, Essential Innovations will now work hand-in-hand with its Chinese technology producer to exploit this geothermal loop field technology as the ground component option that will operate directly with the Company’s proprietary leading-edge R410A, controls driven product line, the EI Elemental Geoexchange Series.

“Over the last decade earlier stage development phases of this technology were effectively utilized under a number of different ground conditions throughout China on upwards of 30,000,000 sq.ft. of projects ranging from single and multi-family to large institutional and commercial building applications. With the operational success of the most current and previously unknown design advancements to the technology just recently having been demonstrated to our top Geoexchange experts, it is felt that this technology is now ready to be implemented on a grand scale around the World. We are extremely optimistic about the widespread and near-term acceptance of this geothermal loop-field technology, particularly when used specifically in conjunction with our own EI Elemental Geoexchange system product line,” stated Jason McDiarmid, President/CEO of ESIV.

Lynn Mueller, Vice-President of Earth Source Energy, the ESIV wholly-owned operating subsidiary offering Geoexchange installation and engineering services commented, “We immediately note that the costs that relate to the installation and operation of this geothermal loop-field technology are substantially less than those associated with standard conventional geothermal loop-field technology, making the opportunity for quick and aggressive market adoption of this technology a reality. The requirement for large amounts of land space to create conventional geothermal loop-field capacity no longer exists with this technology. Having been involved in the design, application, and installation of Geoexchange technology for the last fifteen years, I see this as a monumental leap forward in addressing the barriers to entry commonly associated with the cost of the geothermal loop-field infrastructure.”

As the Company now prepares to commercially launch this unique geothermal loop-field technology into the global marketplace, it will now perform installation of the technology on multiple residential and commercial project sites in North America within the next 3-6 months, so as to absolutely assure the technology’s operational performance outside of China.

Essential Innovations Technology Corp. provides cutting-edge geoexchange solutions for residential, commercial and industrial applications as both a geoexchange energy service company and as a manufacturer of proprietary geothermal heat pump technology. The Company was incorporated in April 2001, and it has four wholly owned subsidiaries located in British Columbia, Canada and in Hong Kong, SAR, China.

Geoexchange technology harnesses the earth’s clean, renewable thermal energy stored just below the surface or in large bodies of water for purposes of heating, cooling, domestic hot water and/or dehumidification. A Geoexchange system is used to “exchange” the earth’s natural heating and cooling properties between a building and the ground. This non-combustion transfer of energy is the source of performance and environmental superiority, as Geoexchange systems need only a small amount of electrical energy to then capture, move and concentrate a large amount of free energy provided by the earth.

WaterFurnace Offers New Line

From staff and news services

WaterFurnace International Inc. today will introduce its Envision Series product line of geothermal heating and cooling units, which boasts the highest heating and cooling efficiency of any system in its class to be certified by the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute.

The Fort Wayne-based company, which employs about 200 locally, sells geothermal and water source heating and cooling systems nationwide and internationally.

WaterFurnace has secured a contract to provide its systems to facilities of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

In a written statement, the company said that its year-to-date growth has been 20 percent as consumers explore the energy-efficient geothermal systems which use no fossil fuels and little electricity.

I've been asked to assist in setting up a twinned pair of 100,000 Btu 96% Variable Speed furnaces - anyone have experiences with a similar set up in field? If ya have lets discuss it. Thanks.

Post Script:
This is apparently a configuration that at least our manufacturer, does not recommend (something to do with staging the v-speed stuff) but it is achievable, according to them.