Ground Source Heat Pumps

ccbrowning

My Heliotherm is still out of commission. It doesn't even attempt to heat water up, just eventually does something and trips the RCD. Hope it ends up getting fixed before winter.

Prydski

I’ve been looking at my readings recently, do these look correct to you? They are miles off what’s suggested in the manual ! It’s an ivt (ice energy) gshp installed in 2008. 

Appreciate any advice and if there’s any links to simulators would appreciate them. My electricity consumption for my 250sqm property is 12,000kwh pa, I’m concinced there’s something wrong with the hp! 

Prydski

ccbrowning said:

My Heliotherm is still out of commission. It doesn't even attempt to heat water up, just eventually does something and trips the RCD. Hope it ends up getting fixed before winter.

Is there an error message? Does it say what’s tripped? Presume pressure on vessle is ok and that you’ve cleaned the filter? I had to replace all sorts of components myself after around a decade, the immersion was leaking and dripping in a sensor. Reppaced both - parts from sweden. 

If you have an error message it would certainly help!

DazzlerDazza

Prydski said:

I’ve been looking at my readings recently, do these look correct to you? They are miles off what’s suggested in the manual ! It’s an ivt (ice energy) gshp installed in 2008. 

Appreciate any advice and if there’s any links to simulators would appreciate them. My electricity consumption for my 250sqm property is 12,000kwh pa, I’m concinced there’s something wrong with the hp! 

Do you mean the values look high to you?

From what I remember, these values can creep quite high when the ground loop pump is not operating, due to the fluid being static and being heated by (high) ambient temperatures.

I see similar readings on my IVT HT+ E11 (captured using my own data logger) - the arrows in the snapshot below point to how the GT10/GT11 readings increase when the pump is off, and then immediately return down to accurate values when the pump is on. You can see that cycle repeats throughout the day:



I'd suggest looking at the readings again when the pump is operating to see if they are nearer expected values.

beardymarrow

Prydski said:

I’ve been looking at my readings recently, do these look correct to you? They are miles off what’s suggested in the manual ! It’s an ivt (ice energy) gshp installed in 2008. 

Appreciate any advice and if there’s any links to simulators would appreciate them. My electricity consumption for my 250sqm property is 12,000kwh pa, I’m concinced there’s something wrong with the hp! 

Hi, 
Those temps are fine if it's not running (looks from the display like it's not) as they'll just drift to whatever is the ambient temperature. Can you send gt8,9, 10 and 11 whilst it's producing hot water. I'll drop a link to the simulator too. 

beardymarrow

DazzlerDazza said:

Prydski said:

I’ve been looking at my readings recently, do these look correct to you? They are miles off what’s suggested in the manual ! It’s an ivt (ice energy) gshp installed in 2008. 

Appreciate any advice and if there’s any links to simulators would appreciate them. My electricity consumption for my 250sqm property is 12,000kwh pa, I’m concinced there’s something wrong with the hp! 

Do you mean the values look high to you?

From what I remember, these values can creep quite high when the ground loop pump is not operating, due to the fluid being static and being heated by (high) ambient temperatures.

I see similar readings on my IVT HT+ E11 (captured using my own data logger) - the arrows in the snapshot below point to how the GT10/GT11 readings increase when the pump is off, and then immediately return down to accurate values when the pump is on. You can see that cycle repeats throughout the day:



I'd suggest looking at the readings again when the pump is operating to see if they are nearer expected values.

What data logger have you got Daz? I've got husdata statlink, but yours looks more customisable. 

beardymarrow

beardymarrow said:

Prydski said:

I’ve been looking at my readings recently, do these look correct to you? They are miles off what’s suggested in the manual ! It’s an ivt (ice energy) gshp installed in 2008. 

Appreciate any advice and if there’s any links to simulators would appreciate them. My electricity consumption for my 250sqm property is 12,000kwh pa, I’m concinced there’s something wrong with the hp! 

Hi, 
Those temps are fine if it's not running (looks from the display like it's not) as they'll just drift to whatever is the ambient temperature. Can you send gt8,9, 10 and 11 whilst it's producing hot water. I'll drop a link to the simulator too. 

https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZAxVhVZ3F6aRfUIEsFGfR8u6sSQkHVOE87k

DazzlerDazza

beardymarrow said:

DazzlerDazza said:

Prydski said:

I’ve been looking at my readings recently, do these look correct to you? They are miles off what’s suggested in the manual ! It’s an ivt (ice energy) gshp installed in 2008. 

Appreciate any advice and if there’s any links to simulators would appreciate them. My electricity consumption for my 250sqm property is 12,000kwh pa, I’m concinced there’s something wrong with the hp! 

Do you mean the values look high to you?

From what I remember, these values can creep quite high when the ground loop pump is not operating, due to the fluid being static and being heated by (high) ambient temperatures.

I see similar readings on my IVT HT+ E11 (captured using my own data logger) - the arrows in the snapshot below point to how the GT10/GT11 readings increase when the pump is off, and then immediately return down to accurate values when the pump is on. You can see that cycle repeats throughout the day:



I'd suggest looking at the readings again when the pump is operating to see if they are nearer expected values.

What data logger have you got Daz? I've got husdata statlink, but yours looks more customisable. 

Hi Beardy, I built a completely bespoke hardware interface and data logger software / visualisation based on some work that a guy had done online to reverse engineer the serial protocol used by the Rego controller.

I built this about 10 years ago when I had the heat pump installed, and haven't really touched it since - it just works and does everything I need it to. I could do with updating it to bring it into line with modern web UI standards at some point.

ICE Energy were actually interested at one point with respect to using it or building on it because they said it was more advanced than the official data logger (which I assume meant statlink?), but that ultimately never progressed any further.

While my interface isn't productionised and immediately shareable, I'd be happy to share technical details if anyone is a geek and is interested in doing something similar.

beardymarrow

DazzlerDazza said:

Hi Beardy, I built a completely bespoke hardware interface and data logger software / visualisation based on some work that a guy had done online to reverse engineer the serial protocol used by the Rego controller.

I built this about 10 years ago when I had the heat pump installed, and haven't really touched it since - it just works and does everything I need it to. I could do with updating it to bring it into line with modern web UI standards at some point.

ICE Energy were actually interested at one point with respect to using it or building on it because they said it was more advanced than the official data logger (which I assume meant statlink?), but that ultimately never progressed any further.

While my interface isn't productionised and immediately shareable, I'd be happy to share technical details if anyone is a geek and is interested in doing something similar.

Nice!

I did sort of the opposite and built my own GSHP controller to replace the Rego, based on an Arduino (with a Pi providing the human interface). It provides the serial output to StatLink too (same format as the Rego) so I went through that pain and probably used the same info as you from that Czech guy :-)
I ran it for a couple of DHW cycles and it worked, but it was more for fun, than to use in anger and I am too scared to use it in production.

https://github.com/beardymarrow/Rego637Replacement

beardymarrow

Actually, while I'm on, I've got an HT+ E9 and have been getting high GT8/GT9 delta alarms. I cleaned the filter, which was really badly blocked up, and increased the P2 pump speed from 2 to 3 and the alarms have gone away, but the delta is still high.
I took a look at the flexible hoses and they were both really badly blocked up, and so it seems is the heat exchanger/condenser (at least the ports on it are). I took the lower flexible hose off and flushed it through with a garden hose and it's now clear. I'll do the same with the top hose (once I can find a spanner thin enough to undo the nut where it attaches to the bottom of the immersion heater :-) ).

So, my question is, should I try to back flush the heat exchanger too. I think it's a 3/4 BSP thread, so I can easily put a normal garden tap end onto it and attach to the hose and go gently (not full mains pressure until I'm happy it's nearly clear). Obviously I can't remove it from the GSHP as the refrigerant side is soldered in place, but I've got good access to it in situ. Any other advice?
Once done, I'll be getting a powerflush of the rads (not been done in at least 11 years) and magnetic filter added to hopefully reduce the likelihood of it happening again.