Duncan Stewart and Geothermal

K

kilbird

Registered User
Messages
69
Did anyone see Duncan Stewart the other night visiting the womans home who had geothermal instlaled and her elec prices were through the roof??? Was it about the house or which programme? Trying to see it as Mother in law was trying to fill me in and didn't have all the details???
 
Was definitely on Mooney radio show, but the caller did say that her ESB bills were extremely high, in fact she said huge, Dunkie kicked to touch and told her to have her house energy rated.

Secman
 
There is plenty of discussions on boards.ie on the costs of running geothermal heatpump. I have come to the conclusion that you are better spending the money on extra insulation and a heat recovery system.
 
Towger said:
There is plenty of discussions on boards.ie on the costs of running geothermal heatpump. I have come to the conclusion that you are better spending the money on extra insulation and a heat recovery system.
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Agreed, insulation doesn't have running costs, nor does it normally breakdown.
 
What is the wattage of those things ?

Would PV cells or a wind turbine not cover the majority of it's power needs ?
 
Wattage usually starts at about 6kW, so no, PV or Turbine won't come near....

Insulate ,insulate and insulate. Then HRV, then LPG for me....

J
 
Folks,

A correctly sized, good quality heat pump will run effeciently in a well insulated house with minimum heat loss. I've seen people who are very happy with their units and who have modest ESB bills. If however the air tightness of the dwelling is poor and there is poor insulation values in walls, floor and roof areas then the compressor is going to be on all the time trying to heat the bloody house.

We carry out energy audits on alot of existing houses and unfortunatly alot of houses built in the last few years are not as energy effecient as they should be. The new Regs in July will drive a big improvement in this.
 
chimpster said:
The new Regs in July will drive a big improvement in this.
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Not if the standard of workmanship that I see on sites is anything to go by, sadly. Good design/specification is meaningless if the builder doesn't attend to the details. Poorly installed insulation is a complete waste of money, regardless of the type of space heating system installed.
 
Geothermal is not an eco friendly technology - especially in Ireland. The problem is that to work, it must be powered by electricity - and the efficiency of the production and transmission of electricity is c. 33%.

Ireland's electricity production is particularly poor - as it is very much fossil fuel driven.
 

If your heat pump can achieve a COP of over 4.0 then you could argue that it is eco friendly but you do raise a very good point.

Not if the standard of workmanship that I see on sites is anything to go by, sadly.
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Hopefully air tightness testing will improve some of the workmanship. But the pass rate of 10 is still way too leaky. The client should look for the contractor to achieve better levels of air tightness than this.
 
Airtightness is only desireable when there's another form of ventilation installed. And assuming the house is NOT airtight, it doesn't really matter what type of heating system you use, they will all be inefficient.

A constantly running heat pump will cost a lot, but so will a constantly running oil system. If the bills are out of hand, there is a problem with the design, or else it's not being used properly.
 
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