My semi off grid system

Currently i`m installing a "semi off grid" system, designed to heat the house, and to supply hot tap water. The heat transporting medium for house heating is water.

Basicly the system consists of three different energy sources.
1: extraction of underground heat (reversed fridge)
2: harnessing of solar heat direct by thermal heat accumulation panels.
3: A big woodburning stove (kakelugn) with an internal 200 liters water tank.

The systems normal configuration is heat by earth extraction. This requires main grid, but the cost effectivity is 1:5. That is, i`m using only 1/5 of the energy to produce the heating for the house, compared to direct heating of the same volume of water. This part is a compromise to make my wife happy (and that is important too). She wanted a basicly maintenance free system. No need to make a fire in a fireplace at 5 in the morning......

The rest of the system is my contribution. I insisted on a redundancy system beeing able to heat the entire house without using main grid.
The solar panels will produce enough energy for the house on a bright winters day, but they are few and far appart, so we are to install a woodburning stove.
All these three systems can work together, or alone. They all delivers heat to a central heat accumulating tank containing 750 liter of water. From the tank the hot water is distibuted to the house or to the tap.

To be able to heat the house without main grid, we need to power two small circulation pumps. They can run on 220v inverted from 12 volt supply.
I have concidered several different ways to generate 12 volt, but i`m not constructin anything yet. I`m planning to just ripp out the car battery if it is needed.

Well, thats all folks.
Tips and ideas is welcomed.

Dear Northplow: These are the kinds of ideas that I want to learn more about. I'm glad you're here and I hope you will keep us posted of your progress. Dario

Absolutly. I will try to take some pictures and post them during this process. It takes some time to finish it all, mostly due to economic issues. It costs a lot of money.

At this point we have added 12 square meters on the house for installation of the pump, the accumulation tank and the control panels with sensores, valves and meters.
We have also burryed 600 meters of PVC tubes in the ground to accumulate earth heat.
Next coming up is installation of the technical components. Its the expencive part, but the least time consuming.

I have also a few changes to be implemented in the controlsystem, wich gives me the possibility to manualy override all the sensors and shunt valves. This will definitely give grey hair on the head to the engineer who is designing this installation. HA HA.

I´ll keep on posting on this thread.

Northplow

I am also very interested in your ideas as well. pictures would be greatly appreciated. If i could somehow set up a geothermal heat/COOLING system here in Las Vegas i would jump all over it in a heartbeat. my electricity bills are crazy during the summer. With normal highs during the summer in the high 110's the A/C runs 24/7. but it has cooled down to a frosty low 90's this past week. but i would rather relocate to more suitable climate.

thanks for sharing.

Her in Medford it was a cool 97 today. I had to work out in it for a little while. But, I survived! Just Kidding in my title! Dario

Our weather here is moderated by the effects of the Pacific Ocean, but this week we have had significantly warmer weather. For that reason I am curious about different options the original post mentioned, although it's probably not quite as key for us as it is for many of you living further south.

i have a question for Northplow.

i wonder why you are planing to use a 220v pump to circulate water in your geothermal heating system?
while i am not an expert by any means. i think you might be trying to pump too much water, to fast, through your system. water will not pick up heat or transfer heat efficiently while flowing to fast. i have learned this problem with past automotive problems i have learned in the 25 years i have been an automotive mechanic. if water flows to fast through a radiator (same principle as picking up heat underground) the heat will not transfer efficiently thus causing overheating. this requires a restriction in the system to regulate coolant flow (thermostat). this is why cars overheat when the thermostat is removed. but if the water flows too fast in your system it may not pick up enough heat.
my second thought is that the same thing could be done by using a 110v circulation pump and a voltage converter hooked to your planned solar power system. i haven't seen any 12v-220v converters on the market but they may be out there.
the house i am renting has a water circulating system in the hot water line to provide instant hot water to all parts of the house. it isn't big, it is very quiet and is 110v. it even has a built in timer so it could be set to turn on any time you require so things get nice and warm before you get out of bed in the morning and shut off after your morning coffee or head out to work. then warm the house before you return.
just an idea.

after rereading Northplow's post over again i think he may not live in north America and have just 220v power and not the standard 110v we are supplied by the grid. but then again I'm guessing.

AntiBling. Correct. I do live in Sweden. 110 in no option here.
The pumps to be used is pumps designed for heating system. The drains approx 70w max. That is 0.3 A. Not alot of current. Long leads is no problem. If powered by 12 w battery, via an inverter, they drains 5,8 A. That + powerloss in the inverter gives not to many hours of use on a 70 Ah battery (10 hours). And cabling must be done to take the current, to reduce powerloss in the cables to.
It is absolutly possible to do, but takes some additional installation.

cooling system. Well, it may function in revers, that is circulating cold water, but that will give condence problems.
Try to run cold water through a car radiator partly enclosed to drain of condensated water, and put a fan behind. That could work.

We don't really have big problems with hot climate, so we just open our windows........

Finaly. A few days ago the plumber and electric guy started working on my heating system. The first part, which is also the "heart" of the system. A heat exchanger pump, alot of plumbing, an hot water accumulating tank with optional inputs for other heatsources.
This is high tech stuff. I`m glad I decided to let competent people do the installation.....











Today they started the system for the first time, and it works, Yaheiiiiii.... I`m so glad. I can`t imagine the feeling of it NOT working....

There is still alot of work, but hopefully we are over the worst part.
As you can see, the room itself is not very nice. Just raw plywoodsheets. This is to be painted, som more light and power outlets to be installed. A watertap is also to be installed. We are in need of a second washer for horse pads, blankets and other horse stuff.

Sorry about not beeing here on the forum more often. I will tell you all about it in another thread.

I would imagine that you need that heat this time of the year in Norway, right? It has also been very cold here at night the last few weeks. I enjoy seeing what you have done. Culex Pipiens is another enjoyable contributor who has shared a lot of his expertise here. I wish I could meet you both in person. Dario