Ground Source Heat Pumps

ccbrowning

ccbrowning said:

So, looks like our Heliotherm unit has decided to quit working! When requesting DHW it will trip the RCD exactly 35 minutes in each time, and never heat up the water. Really fun getting anyone out to have a look at it, so we have no hot water! I do see our 300 litre immersion tank has a tiny 3.4kw heating element in it, but I imagine it's not getting used since the GSHP does all the work.

100% adding an Eddi or similar next year, too, although not sure if that will utilise the GSHP for heating or the tiny immersion element (which is less efficient?).

I still don't have a working heat pump! Glad my house is well-insulated... Can't seem to get the parts, with Heliotherm saying it is 16 weeks to get the replacement part (shorted compressor or something). It originally broke sometime around the 18th of July.

This week the company that did the original installation spent three days trying to swap in some CTC heat pump and now says it has a fault, to. Now they're just offering some space heaters until the spare part for the Heliotherm is back. Does this sound normal to anyone here? This is also a new build home... nice.

JHen1

beardymarrow said:

JHen1 said:

Hi ! I have an IVT HT Plus C7M G3 and wanted to know if there is minimum hot water temp setting I should have set ? I wanted to limit the kWh it uses per day - or does this not make much difference to the running cost ? Also, does the IVT keep a register of kWh used ?

[DELETED]

No, there's no log of kWh as such, but it does log usage so you can always them multiply that by the compressor power (approx 2kw for you) to get kWh.

I should have asked how I find the usage ?

beardymarrow

ccbrowning said:

ccbrowning said:

So, looks like our Heliotherm unit has decided to quit working! When requesting DHW it will trip the RCD exactly 35 minutes in each time, and never heat up the water. Really fun getting anyone out to have a look at it, so we have no hot water! I do see our 300 litre immersion tank has a tiny 3.4kw heating element in it, but I imagine it's not getting used since the GSHP does all the work.

100% adding an Eddi or similar next year, too, although not sure if that will utilise the GSHP for heating or the tiny immersion element (which is less efficient?).

I still don't have a working heat pump! Glad my house is well-insulated... Can't seem to get the parts, with Heliotherm saying it is 16 weeks to get the replacement part (shorted compressor or something). It originally broke sometime around the 18th of July.

This week the company that did the original installation spent three days trying to swap in some CTC heat pump and now says it has a fault, to. Now they're just offering some space heaters until the spare part for the Heliotherm is back. Does this sound normal to anyone here? This is also a new build home... nice.

Nightmare. Really sorry to hear that. I don't know anything about the Heliotherm, so I can't offer any advice, but it doesn't sound like the manufacturer is very good if it's taking 16 weeks to get the part. 

beardymarrow

JHen1 said:

beardymarrow said:

JHen1 said:

Hi ! I have an IVT HT Plus C7M G3 and wanted to know if there is minimum hot water temp setting I should have set ? I wanted to limit the kWh it uses per day - or does this not make much difference to the running cost ? Also, does the IVT keep a register of kWh used ?

[DELETED]

No, there's no log of kWh as such, but it does log usage so you can always them multiply that by the compressor power (approx 2kw for you) to get kWh.

I should have asked how I find the usage ?

Menu option 7, which is available in Customer 2 mode (press and hold heat button to get into that mode. 

ccbrowning

beardymarrow said:

ccbrowning said:

ccbrowning said:

So, looks like our Heliotherm unit has decided to quit working! When requesting DHW it will trip the RCD exactly 35 minutes in each time, and never heat up the water. Really fun getting anyone out to have a look at it, so we have no hot water! I do see our 300 litre immersion tank has a tiny 3.4kw heating element in it, but I imagine it's not getting used since the GSHP does all the work.

100% adding an Eddi or similar next year, too, although not sure if that will utilise the GSHP for heating or the tiny immersion element (which is less efficient?).

I still don't have a working heat pump! Glad my house is well-insulated... Can't seem to get the parts, with Heliotherm saying it is 16 weeks to get the replacement part (shorted compressor or something). It originally broke sometime around the 18th of July.

This week the company that did the original installation spent three days trying to swap in some CTC heat pump and now says it has a fault, to. Now they're just offering some space heaters until the spare part for the Heliotherm is back. Does this sound normal to anyone here? This is also a new build home... nice.

Nightmare. Really sorry to hear that. I don't know anything about the Heliotherm, so I can't offer any advice, but it doesn't sound like the manufacturer is very good if it's taking 16 weeks to get the part. 

Yeah seems pretty wild. CTC seems decent, although finding comparative reviews online is difficult. Seems wild that it was also DOA, though.

JHen1

beardymarrow said:

[DELETED]

No, there's no log of kWh as such, but it does log usage so you can always them multiply that by the compressor power (approx 2kw for you) to get kWh.

beardymarrow, so if the difference between the 7.1 reading today and yesterday is 2 I can be pretty sure it's only used 4kWh over that period - just need to find where the other 22kWh is going

beardymarrow

JHen1 said:

beardymarrow said:

[DELETED]

No, there's no log of kWh as such, but it does log usage so you can always them multiply that by the compressor power (approx 2kw for you) to get kWh.

beardymarrow, so if the difference between the 7.1 reading today and yesterday is 2 I can be pretty sure it's only used 4kWh over that period - just need to find where the other 22kWh is going

Yeah, that's it. I mean the heating system in total will use slightly more than 2kW, as you've got at least two pumps (probably 3), but the pumps will be running 24x7 (unless outside temp is above 15deg), and are approx. 100W each. So, maybe add 2-3kW for those (assuming 2-3 running for 10Hrs).
For comparison, mine was running for 3hrs yesterday and used 11.3kWh (8kWh for the compressor, 0.54kWh for the ground loop pump, 1.45kWh for the rad pumps (I have 2) and 1.23kWh for the heat carrier pump).

Patrol

JHen1 said:

beardymarrow, so if the difference between the 7.1 reading today and yesterday is 2 I can be pretty sure it's only used 4kWh over that period - just need to find where the other 22kWh is going

That sounds about right, although it could be anywhere between 1.2 - 2.8 hours as part hours are not shown so readings over a larger range than one day will be more accurate.

As for your other 22kWh, you mean apart from the heat pump? Presumably menu option 7.3 didn't change in that time as each hour there will likely be 6kWh (and as above a static figure could still mean additional heat has operated but for less than an hour).

JHen1

Patrol said:

JHen1 said:

beardymarrow, so if the difference between the 7.1 reading today and yesterday is 2 I can be pretty sure it's only used 4kWh over that period - just need to find where the other 22kWh is going

That sounds about right, although it could be anywhere between 1.2 - 2.8 hours as part hours are not shown so readings over a larger range than one day will be more accurate.

As for your other 22kWh, you mean apart from the heat pump? Presumably menu option 7.3 didn't change in that time as each hour there will likely be 6kWh (and as above a static figure could still mean additional heat has operated but for less than an hour).

Thanks both. Noted about the 1hr running time in 7.1. So over the last 9 days, 7.1 has increased by 18, so 2 per days sounds about right (no change to 7.3). So as beardymarrow stated, its around 2kWh for the compressor + additional running costs - so, if I assume 6kWh (Patrol) per hour, I can very roughly say I'm using 2 x 6 = 12kWh per day currently? 

Patrol

From what you've said it sounds more like 5-6kWh per day? (7.1: 2 hours x 2kWh, 1-2kWh for pumps,  7.3: < 1 hour x 6kWh).