HVAC. Polar Vortex. Hows your system handling it?

[LD1]

Hows everyones system handling the cold?

My 4-ton geo unit is hanging in there. No backup. My system was set to kick the second stage on if its on first stage for more than an hour and not been satisfied. But its a "smart" stat with a "learning algorithm" meaning that it wont necessarily kick second stage on if it knows first stage is real close after than hour.

Second stage has been having some work to do this past 12hrs or so sub zero temps.

But until the second stage is running darn near 24/7.....I dont think I have to worry about having a cold house:thumbsup:

 

[4570Man]

My wood burner is good to about zero before I have to help it with the gas furnace. The lows have been about 10 degrease so it’s keeping up pretty good.

 

[LD1]

My wood burner is good to about zero before I have to help it with the gas furnace. The lows have been about 10 degrease so it’s keeping up pretty good.

I dont think we are slated to get back above zero till tomorrow afternoon. Been hovering around -6 to -8 all day today.

 

[jaydee325]

Located in SW Michigan here. Our Geo has been running continuously too. I've got an older unit, so I can keep the 10Kw resistance backup heaters breaker open, which I've done. Got down to -15 deg F and the Geo was managing 67 deg in the house. That is close to where I wanted to close the breaker, my wife said just put a sweater on! (LOL) Can't wait to see this months electric bill (NOT!)

Funny story; An old boss of mine installed a similar unit years ago and had the same 10Kw resistance heat. He said when the backup kicked on, it spun the electric meter so fast it shook the house!!! (LOL)

 

[BlackOps]

been using a woodstock soapstone stove wood stove for 21 years now - nothing else. back of house gets chilly but we have been fine. Just love this stove!!!

going though a lot of wood the last 2 years though. been getting harder to get woof - and yes i have to buck it all up and split etc.

oh - it is the fireview model.

 

[TnAndy]

My wood burner is good to about zero before I have to help it with the gas furnace. The lows have been about 10 degrease so it’s keeping up pretty good.

Our primary wood stove in the living/dining/kitchen area does fine until we hit low-mid teens, then I start the one in the basement, which we did yesterday. Knocks the chill off that end of the house. It's 75-77 degrees inside right now.

 

[nybirdman]

We just had a new oil fired furnace installed in Dec.2018 and also run a Vermont Casting propane stove all winter.What is nice about the propane it doesn't need power to run.Gave up on wood twenty years ago;and I own my own wood-lot.My son keeps it cleaned up to heat his house.

 

[Shblack]

Commissioned our waterfurnace 7 series last month, getting to know it. Really like the constant temperature and it’s quiet. Currently 17F outside, loop temperature is 36.2F, which is a bit cooler than I would have expected. Current electric load is 3.3 KW

 

[s219]

Hows everyones system handling the cold?

My 4-ton geo unit is hanging in there. No backup. My system was set to kick the second stage on if its on first stage for more than an hour and not been satisfied. But its a "smart" stat with a "learning algorithm" meaning that it wont necessarily kick second stage on if it knows first stage is real close after than hour.

Second stage has been having some work to do this past 12hrs or so sub zero temps.

But until the second stage is running darn near 24/7.....I dont think I have to worry about having a cold house:thumbsup:

View attachment 589447

Do you monitor your ground loop temperature? Be curious to know what it gets down to when the system is working hard for a long time in extreme cold ambient temperatures. Do you know what your lower limit cutoff temperature is? I think the real concern for me is if the geo runs so much that the ground loop doesn't have time to recover. At a minimum that can just mean the system makes less and less heat and/or won't be able to keep up, but if you hit the lower limit the system will cut off. I believe my lower limit is set to 10F for our particular methanol/water mix.

Last year we had some -5F ambient temps and my geo system was working very hard. It cut off a few times, which made me think the lower limit was triggered, but when I hooked up the diagnostic tool the next day, turns out it cut off due condensate drain overflow errors. That had me scratching my head, since the system should only be generating condensate in the summer with AC. Come to find out the drain line for our steam humidifier froze up and it back flowed up the common drain pipe and into the geo unit's condensate tray, triggering the overflow sensor.

The other problem we had was that we lost power a couple times overnight when the temperature was that low. I assume it was due to excessive demand on the utility. Every time that happened, the geo unit would go into a random purge delay before starting back up, and the humidifier would go through a drain/refill cycle. With a frozen drain line, that would then trigger the geo's overflow sensor all over again and it would not start up.

This winter, I put a valve on the drain line and now isolate the geo unit from the humidifier during the peak of heating season. If the drain line freezes the humidifier will cut off without flooding anything else, and we can certainly live without a humidifier.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

My geo aux heat kicked on tonight at 4° outside.