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Green Building Bible, Fourth Edition
Green Building Bible, fourth edition (both books)
These two books are the perfect starting place to help you get to grips with one of the most vitally important aspects of our society - our homes and living environment.

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  1.  
    Does anyone have experience of a successful g/s pump upgrade working with the original ground array?

    We're building a first floor extension on a bungalow and have an existing 12 year old ground source heat system. The company that made the pump has gone bust and although it works fine and has good enough capacity, we want to upgrade to get a quieter and more energy efficient model. For the record, it's a TES (Thermal Engineering Systems Ltd) 16-1 16kW 230V/1Ph/50Hz and the tank is a Ecocat 360/200L

    Consultants have suggested abandoning the ground source and moving to air source because a) the wells and ground collectors can't be inspected, b) the fittings between collection and pump won't match up and c) we could get RHI for a new system, but not the upgrade.

    The idea of simply declaring the groundsource system redundant really goes against the grain. Anyone had this problem and overcome it?
    • CommentAuthortony
    • CommentTimeApr 15th 2021 edited
     
    It should be OK - nonsense about not being able to inspect. that is true of all gshp arrays! pipe connectors and converters available

    insulate or hope the extension insulates the house better than thew walls did before - aim to reduce energy use

    silly to ditch it, ASHP can ice up , perform badly, be noisy etc
    • CommentAuthorjfb
    • CommentTimeApr 15th 2021 edited
     
    Posted By: tonyASHP can ice up , perform badly, be noisy etc


    as can GSHP to be fair.

    But I agree it does seem a little crazy to abandon a working ground array.
  2.  
    Thanks Tony & jfb - really helpful
  3.  
    Posted By: MikeZeidlerConsultants have suggested abandoning the ground source and moving to air source because a) the wells and ground collectors can't be inspected, b) the fittings between collection and pump won't match up and c) we could get RHI for a new system, but not the upgrade.

    Hmmm....

    Posted By: tonyIt should be OK - nonsense about not being able to inspect. that is true of all gshp arrays! pipe connectors and converters available...................silly to ditch it


    Posted By: jfbBut I agree it does seem a little crazy to abandon a working ground array.

    +1
    If it ain't broke why fix it ! Sounds like job creation to me.
    • CommentAuthorEd Davies
    • CommentTimeApr 16th 2021
     
    Posted By: MikeZeidlerConsultants have suggested abandoning the ground source
    Sounds like botty covering to me. They might worry that if they recommend continuing with the existing ground-source pipes and it turns out there's a problem you might have some come back against them.
    • CommentAuthorphiledge
    • CommentTimeApr 16th 2021
     
    Posted By: MikeZeidler
    Consultants have suggested abandoning the ground source and moving to air source because b) the fittings between collection and pump won't match up


    Without knowing the details, it sounds like youd be better abandoning the consultants rather than the collector piping!
    • CommentAuthorMike1
    • CommentTimeApr 16th 2021
     
    Have they also suggested installing radiators as they can't inspect the UFCH too?!
    • CommentAuthorrevor
    • CommentTimeApr 16th 2021
     
    Whilst I profess to know only a little about HP by once considering them and decided instead on OTT insulation and simpler technology. Common sense tell me to stick with the ground array you have but consider sampling the slinky contents to see what it is like. I just think what your consultants propose is as Ed suggests is to cover themselves. If you had any issues with connections and guess you won't there will be adaptors I bet. Any decent engineering works could knock them up for you.
  4.  
    Only big issue I could see is if your new heatpump is of a higher capacity than the old one - the ground array might only be sized for a certain output so might not be able to supply all the heat required by the new one. Do you still have the original specs on the ground array? It should be possible to compute what its capacity is to at least a first order of accuracy.

    One other thing you could do is change all the working fluid too when you change the heatpump. Might not be technically necessary, but probably a good idea (depending what antifreeze was used, if any).

    Paul in Montreal.
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