The Greening of Yew Tree Cottage

[Richard Owen]

Here goes! Yew Tree Cottage goes green. Phase 1; the heat pump

We used to heat the house on 'orrible old storage heaters and a woodburner. It was sort of Ok. When we built the extension, we put in UFH so thought we'd try a heat pump.

Here's a picture of it (with its clothes off) in bodge central.

[Richard Owen]

That was a short post, just to make sure I could upload the picture correctly. To interpret, the tank on the wall is the header for the ground loops. The grey pipes are the heating flow and return up into the house. The heat pump is sitting on a dolly because I haven't decided yet where it should finally live (probably not taking up space in bodge central. There's lots's of other bodging to do!)

Since we have a stream, I thought it would be a good idea to use that for the ground loop pipes rather than dig up the garden. It just so happens that the weir that stops the foundations of the bridge being scoured out, also makes a pond. Could we get 200m of pipe in a pond 2mx2m?

We just had to find out.

Attached is a picture of the pipes, in 4x50m loops, tied by a world record number of cable ties to a scaffolding pole frame. It's all desperately scrapheap challenge.

[Richard Owen]

So the plan is to have the 35mm pipes to and from the heat pump running into four 50m loops of 25mm mdpe. Which means we need a couple of manifolds. This is what manifolds look like in mdpe world.



The stop cocks are there to allow isolation of loops so they can be effectively purged of air. I hope.



There's the pipes neatly entering conduits under the car park.

[Richard Owen]

And not so neatly exiting on their way into bodge central. I must work out where I want to drill holes in the wall.

[Richard Owen]

Now we need to cover the pipes with water. Time to block up the drain in the bottom of the weir.



Oops! Even with an extra layer of blocks laid on top of the weir, some of the pipes aren't completely covered.

Let's hope I don't get any of those annoying Error 17 messages.

[Richard Owen]

To raise the level of the weir we need some blocks and somone to lay them.

Well, here are the blocks.

[pogster]

Hi Richard,

All looking good - I thought the idea of a GSHP was that the system uses the temperature differential between the coolant in the pipe and the constant 11 degrees from the ground loop. In your case the ground loop temperature will vary significantly with the temperature of the outside conditions and could get down to close to zero degrees Centigrade. Will this effect the efficiency of the system?

Pete.

[Richard Owen]

Hi Pete,

I'm doing a bit of a catch up so some of this is quite old. I had the system running last winter. The coldest the water in the pond got was 6c. With the Machine Mart swimming pool pump moving the water around like a rushing thing, the heat pump never got the chance to get too cold on the ground loop side.

I did wake one morning to a 17 error (which is how I know what they are.) Close inspection showed the plug had come out of the weir drain and the pipes were pretty much uncovered. Replacing the plug and letting the pond refill, solved the problem.

Does that answer your question?

[Ivan]

All very interesting! Keep us posted, with more pics, if possible,

Ivan

[Richard Owen]

A blessing from on high and a sunny morning. What more could an ego bodger want?

Actually, a bit of help in a more prosaic area.

How do I put images in line with the text rather than appended at the end?

I've tried using the insert image icon, but all I end up with (in preview) is a little square with a red x in it. Like this

What am I doing wrong?

ta,
  Richard

[Alan]

Hello Richard

Not sure what you mean

Quote “ How do I put images in line with the text rather than appended at the end? “

If you want your text to be at the right or left of the picture the HTML scripting would need to changed on the Navitron web page to allow the  text to be displayed by the image side.

Pictures below a certain size get saved on the navitron web page. Like your picture with the blue pipes coming out of the grey protection tubes.

<br /><br /><img src="http://www.navitron.org.uk/forum/Themes/default/images/icons/clip.gif" align="middle" alt="*" border="0" />&nbsp;DSC02503.JPG</a> (66.64 KB, 448x336 - viewed 133 times.)<br />

Or the picture can be stored on your internet providers hard drive with the address being typed between the space where your red x has occurred.

You need to have a program to upload the files to your web providers drive like.

www.coreftp.com



Like my gear wheel below.

and wheel gear. <br /><br /><img src="http://www.steamboilers.homecall.co.uk/300.jpg" alt="" border="0" /><br />

It matters not where they are stored.


Regards

Alan

[Richard Owen]

Hi Alan,

Thanks for that. I think that's sorted the problem. I needed to have the photos available on the web already, rather than uploading them with the posts.

Now to try it out.

Richard

[Richard Owen]

I was supposed to be getting some work done today, but the posty dropped this wonderful tome through the letter box



Now, the hydro plant is currently programmed in for phase 5 of TGoYTC but what is an eco bodger to do with such temptation?

The answer is to have a quick scan over a cup of tea and then instead of having a proper dinner time, to go and accurately measure the head of water available.

Using the trusty pressure of water method, we see the hose pipe snaking up the hill.


And here's a pressure reading


A wonderful 0.8bar. The sum of all the readings is 1.8bar, which I reckon gives me an 18m head. I also know that I need 65m or thereabouts of pipe to get the water down to the turbine.

Now I've had me fun, it's time to put it all away and get back to work.

More later, when The Bionic Buider lays some super flat blocks and the ground loop (or should that be pond loop) pipes finally get covered.

P.S. The LongRiverBookCompany wanted a lot of money for this slim volume on the conversion of moving water to moving electrons.. A quick google got if for 1/4 of the price.

[Alan]

Just converted it from metric bars to pounds per square inch to inches water guage to feet then back to metric.

Yup it’s the same.

Will get to trust them Metric thingies one day.

Regards

Alan

P.S. using single phase motors for generators can be a bit hit and miss. Depending on air gap between rotor and stator

[Richard Owen]

P.S. using single phase motors for generators can be a bit hit and miss. Depending on air gap between rotor and stator

Interesting read of the above book. His preferred method of producing electricity is by using a three phase motor with capacitors on two phases and the leccy pulled off just one. Efficiencies don't look too bad.

Anyway, have to put this away now. Must get on with detailed planning for phase 2.