Ground Source Heat Pumps

lstevensuk

Right after spending my life savings on some heat transfer fluid I decided before topping it up to have one final attempt at finding the leak. I was hoping I'd find some sort of connection in the by now but pipes look like they are just heading down 

Strummer22

lstevensuk said:

Right after spending my life savings on some heat transfer fluid I decided before topping it up to have one final attempt at finding the leak. I was hoping I'd find some sort of connection in the by now but pipes look like they are just heading down 

Out of interest how old is your system and how quickly does it lose pressure due to the leak?

lstevensuk

Strummer22 said:

lstevensuk said:

Right after spending my life savings on some heat transfer fluid I decided before topping it up to have one final attempt at finding the leak. I was hoping I'd find some sort of connection in the by now but pipes look like they are just heading down 

Out of interest how old is your system and how quickly does it lose pressure due to the leak?

Its 15 Years and 3 months. Sorry I'm not sure how I tell if it's loosing pressure on the ground loop? 

The header tank was empty so have just topped that it. See how long it takes to empty. It's always better in the winter as I think the clay soil when wet seals up the leak a bit.

Strummer22

lstevensuk said:

Strummer22 said:

lstevensuk said:

Right after spending my life savings on some heat transfer fluid I decided before topping it up to have one final attempt at finding the leak. I was hoping I'd find some sort of connection in the by now but pipes look like they are just heading down 

Out of interest how old is your system and how quickly does it lose pressure due to the leak?

Its 15 Years and 3 months. Sorry I'm not sure how I tell if it's loosing pressure on the ground loop? 

The header tank was empty so have just topped that it. See how long it takes to empty. It's always better in the winter as I think the clay soil when wet seals up the leak a bit.

Ah my heat pump has a gauge on the brine pipes telling me the pressure. It also has an alarm if the pressure is too low.

Maybe you could contact a heat pump specialist and see if there are any additives that could potentially seal a slow leak?

lstevensuk

Yeah I do t think mine has a pressure gauge , only for the incoming mains.

certainly something I’ll look into. I might thanks for the pointer.

Droyd01

Hello everybody, I’m new to the forum. 

Two years or so I moved into a house with a Worcester Greenstore (system version) 11kW GSHP.  The GSHP uses the Rego 637W control software and went in around 2012 when the house was built.

Yesterday, we used 64kWh of electricity, which some might say is fine for a four-bedroom bungalow – but we literally spent the day covered in blankets because the house is freezing.

My landlord who put it in, has no idea and Worcester Bosch not much better.  This forum has taught me way more than any of the experts we have consulted.

Can someone help me get this thing working properly – I’m at my wits end.

Patrol

Hello
On 26 November we used 32.7 kWh on a 2007 dormer bungalow with 3 beds + underfloor heating downstairs, 30m2 room and bathroom with radiators upstairs. Our gshp is 6.5kW with no buffer tank, eastern England, set to 19c and checking just now the bedroom thermostats are all clicking on/off at 18-19c. Your heatpump is larger than ours so will use more energy per hour of use but in theory it should be suitably sized to heat the property so shouldn't need to feel cold. Have you got a separate thermometer to check what room temperatures you currently have. Does your hot water have instant recirculation (hot as soon as tap runs rather than time taken to get from cylinder to tap).

Do you know how to get readings out of the heat pump? Ours also has Rego 637 controller, holding the Menu button for about 10-15 seconds changes mode and a lot of settings can then be obtained. While a chore to scroll through each one and note down the values this is really the only way to determine whether it's running efficiently other than spot checks on actual electric consumption.

The sorts of thing it might show are what the desired room temperature is set to, if additional heat is being used a lot, the percentage split between how water and space heating, whether it is set to run as needed 24/7 (good) or for a few hours a day (not good for a heat pump), what temperature the hot water is set to, how often the water is heated to prevent legionella, cumulative hours for ground loop and for additional heat that you can check over a few days, etc. 

I left ours running on default settings for 2 years, made some counterproductive changes in year 3, and in year 4 worked out better settings that I've barely tweaked for the last 10-12 years.

Patrol

Had a quick look and think you'll have the same settings if this manual is anything to go by
https://www.worcester-bosch.co.uk/support/literature/download/8716112860 (installation guide, shows how to access the advanced settings)

https://www.worcester-bosch.co.uk/support/literature/download/release/8716112859/12709 (user guide)

Strummer22

Droyd01 said:

Hello everybody, I’m new to the forum. 

Two years or so I moved into a house with a Worcester Greenstore (system version) 11kW GSHP.  The GSHP uses the Rego 637W control software and went in around 2012 when the house was built.

Yesterday, we used 64kWh of electricity, which some might say is fine for a four-bedroom bungalow – but we literally spent the day covered in blankets because the house is freezing.

My landlord who put it in, has no idea and Worcester Bosch not much better.  This forum has taught me way more than any of the experts we have consulted.

Can someone help me get this thing working properly – I’m at my wits end.

Your GSHP should be achieving a COP of at least 3.5. If it does, the 64 kWh electricity will have produced 224 kWh of heat. If your heat pump is on 24 hours then it's producing 9.3 kW of heat - nearly full whack for an 11kW installation.

I suppose it was very cold at the end of Nov so it may be operating near design capacity.

Anyways, your house was freezing - but how did your heat emitters feel? Were the radiators or underfloor heating feeling warm? If so, the problem probably isn't with the heat pump. How big are the radiators? How much loft and wall insulation have you got? Is your house draughty? Get on top of keeping the heat in (and deal with any potentially undersized radiators) and you'll save money and be warmer. I freely admit I need to improve this in my house to get the best of out my GSHP - I just don't have the cash spare right now!

Badger36

I currently in the early stages of planning on building a house of around 200m2. I'm in Scotland.

Space isn't a concern and I understand that Ground Source is better if space allows. 

However I question the suitability for ourselves. 

• The house will be unoccupied for at least 10hrs most days
• With our business the house will frequently be unoccupied for days at a time during the midweek. 
• We are also keen climbers/trekkers - so weekends where the weather allows we pack the van and head off.

My concerns about the heat pump over an oil central heating systems are that my understanding of heat pumps are that they work best if on all of the time, which isn't efficient given the amount of time we spend not in our house.. They also don't heat a house up quickly if away for say 5 days with work. Whilst I do like the green credentials of the heat pump, I am unconvinced  that a heat pump is the correct option for our lifestyle. Our oil system just now will have the house, from cold, warm in 30 minutes - and that is in December temperatures. 

Also a lot of noise is being made in Scotland about these being made mandatory in future. 

Does anyone have any practical lived experience of how