possible well pump problems?

[Egon]

Do you have off peak power rates in your area?

 

[merrickvilleguy]

ya ... basically what they did was raise the off peak rates a little and raised peak rates a lot ... but don't worry you get a 10% discount for the green energy act ... so long as you don't mind a 35% increase in your power rates prior to taking it off

 

[milkman636]

The small heat pump was probably selected because of the limited available well flow. It wasn't sized according to the home heating load. Heat pumps can be very efficient if they are sized right and provided an adequate supply of water. It sounds like you would need a bigger well supply to even consider adequately sizing a heat pump for your home.

A possible solution to consider is adding a hot water heating coil in the ductwork leaving the heat pump, and a small, high-efficiency direct vent boiler to make hot water for the coil.

You would still use the existing heat pump for air conditioning in summer. In winter, the heat pump would primarily function as just a circulating blower. It would also be a functional back up heat source if there ever was a problem with the boiler during the winter.

 

[merrickvilleguy]

Ya it turns out (after talking to the guy who installed it, not the guy who did the work for me), that the previous owner who put this thing in, refused to replace the pump in 2007 when he had it installed, so that's why they went with the lower btu furnace (which btw would cost 12k to upsize to the 30kbtu one)

 

[Egon]

Bummer on that off hydro deal.

 

[milkman636]

Check prices for a small boiler and coil setup. The boiler could also be coupled to an indirect water heater to provide domestic hot water as well as heating for your home.

 

[kidstrustfund]

I have a boiler set up to a air handler and a hot water heater. No heat pump but pretty much what you would have when the heat pump would switch to auxillery heat while linked to a boiler. It works great for 20 years now. I just invested in a solar system for electric, and a wood burning built in stove thanks to the reinvestment act of 2009 and srecs. When my ac finally goes I am thinking on going with a standard heat pump with a boiler as aux heat. I think a heat pump works more effeciently in ac mode. My electricity is now free from the sun. I live in the woods so my wood is free except for the work. No more electric bill, 70% reduction in my gas bill, no need for a gym membership because of processing wood , my land will start to look cleaned up from processing firewood, and it's nice watching the fire warm my house. Cheap scapes hate paying the man. Tom

 

[merrickvilleguy]

Bummer on that off hydro deal.

But its green technology! its good! Its so good that they are paying solar producers 80c/kwh. This raises our rates to the point that if I don't run the wood stove all the time my bill would be huge, or I'd be sitting <60 in the house.

And with time of use, the rate on peak times is huge,

my dec bill:
1000kwh 6.4c/kwh + 1030kwh 7.4c/kwh for $140.22, or average 6.9c/kwh. Fees on top of that bring it to $311.64 or 15.4c/kwh

this averaged 70kwh/day 26f avg temp

my jan bill with time of use:
off 5.1c/kwh 2100-0700 1866kwh $95.17
mid 8.1c/kwh 1100-1700 381kwh $30.87
on 9.9c/kwh 0700-1100, 1700-1900 688kwh $68.16

$194.2 usage (average 6.6c/kwh) for 2935kwh cost $425.71 or 14.5c/kwh (note we currently have a 10% rebate on hydro ... so the actual bill is 16c/kwh thanks to time of use)

this averaged 89kwh/day 12f avg temp

and just as historic info: aug-sep last year we averaged 63f and used 56kwh/day

since the wife and kids are here all the time we leave the temp at 20 when its heating and 21 when cooling

 

[kidstrustfund]

I did not make the laws. I am just taking advantage of the opertunities the man is giving me. I do realise rate payers are the footing the bill. In New Jersey rates cannot be effected by more than 2 %. Around new jersey their is a 20 % cap on green power. The utilities can use 10 % of that. Solar power will eventually cost less than utility power. It will be less expensive to invest in green power with out subsidies, than buying utility power. That day is not very far into the future. The problem is their is a cap of 10 % for grid tie in systems. Once that 10% is reached you have to go off grid to go solar. Again the man has put his thumb on the regular guy. The way I see it it's either pay for someone else to do it or get paid to do it myself.

 

[merrickvilleguy]

I mean I'm all for going to safer/cleaner technologies, and I understand they are currently more expensive, so to drive expansion and development of them you need to put incentives out there to get people to buy in ... but their rates are insane.

As an example:
a 10kwh system is about $36000 installed. A 10yr 5% loan on that will cost you $381/mo

Up here, we get an average of 4 1/2hrs a day of sun light. Assuming that's the only time you are generating electricity is when the suns out, you will make around $36 a day, break that over a month and you are talking close to $1100/month.

Even taking into account maintenance costs (most of the cost of this system is in the panels not the inverter/cabling/etc) your total costs per month are about 40% of your income. Pretty quick way to make cash if you can flip the bill to have it installed. At that rate, its about 4 1/2 years to pay back the initial loan.

 

[Egon]

Thanks for the information.:thumbsup:

In Nova Scotia I have been told "Off Peak Hydro with in slab heating" is one of the cheapest heating mediums with good old wood being the cheapest.

The proper solution is probably a reduction in heating demand but that is again an expensive proposition.

 

[kidstrustfund]

Their are other costs involved. I paid 6.00 per watt installed, then their is the cost of money, tree removal, roofs and structural stuff, ect. 7.5 year pay back if it produces what is predicted. Their is some question as to the systems delivering all they are promised to do. Right now they are not. But it does pay back with a profit after 7 .5 years if it works as predicted. It also caps your utility rates which go up 5% each year or 2. Also their is maintenance involved. Cleaning the inverters and panels each year. Keeping the tree line below the view of the panels. Insurance, ect. New Jersey is even talking about charging more property taxes for the added value of your property. It's not as big of a wind fall as it appears. But it will pay for itself and give you free electric over it's life time. And it does pay a higher rate of return than any other investment I know of these days. New Jersey caps the contribution from the rate payers at 2 %. So on a 350.00 bill you would contribute 7.00. I understand the frustration of higher utility bills. But 2% of your utility bill isn't that crushing.

 

[merrickvilleguy]

Ya the prob I see up here is they are buying power at 80c and selling it for <7c ... the rest is paid for by taxes. Now, the amount of solar on that rate I'm not sure ... its a few MW so far.

Ya the price I was given is assuming the roof can handle the weight and no maintenance

I've been hearing anything from 5-10yrs for inverters and batteries, panels are supposed to last 25yrs, but they start getting less productive as time goes on, not sure how quick they degrade though.

 

[merrickvilleguy]

resurrecting this for posterities sake ...

so this past week we had to shock our well, after 24 hrs ... our normally 5gpm pump was giving us tops 1gpm. That was 2 days ago, today that was a stretch. So we got a well guy out and took a look at the pump. Looks like the impeller (or bearings) finally let go. We replaced the pump and went inside. Instead of taking 8 mins or so to fill our pressure tank, was well under a minute. So we took a look at the flow, amazing ... until the pressure tank was empty. At that point we were seeing slower flow (but still way more than before). Turns out that there was a flow restricting valve in there (between the well and the house) which had clogged up. Removing that valve and running it straight means we basically don't ever see a change in pressure.

Can run the hose outside AND sinks/washing machine etc without a problem =)