HVAC. Polar Vortex. Hows your system handling it?

[LD1]

Just another day here. I really don't understand all the fuss and bother.

Not really anything to fuss about. Just see alot of ads (especially on social media) from HVAC guys claiming systems arent designed to handle these below normal conditions. and offering the usual advise. Boil water, minimize going in an out, crank heat up prior to this cold spell, etc etc.

What was intriguing is the claim that the systems arent designed for this.

I designed my for this. Didnt want to rely on backup electric.

So was just curious how everyones systems ere doing.

 

[teejk]

Just another day here. I really don't understand all the fuss and bother.

:laughing:We in Wisconsin have "weather issues" but compared to ND we should just shut up.

 

[teejk]

Not really anything to fuss about. Just see alot of ads (especially on social media) from HVAC guys claiming systems arent designed to handle these below normal conditions. and offering the usual advise. Boil water, minimize going in an out, crank heat up prior to this cold spell, etc etc.

What was intriguing is the claim that the systems arent designed for this.

I designed my for this. Didnt want to rely on backup electric.

So was just curious how everyones systems ere doing.

Our under-floor radiant was designed to handle 99% of anything mother nature could throw at it. Mother nature won this time. We do have a forced air furnace (serves as our air handler for AC in the summer time...for a few $$$ more it made more sense to go that way over a dedicated air handler and is a "back-up") but I didn't fire that this morning...-40F outside and the radiant was maintaining 65F...a few degrees below stat setting but not bad all things considered.

 

[Alan W.]

I would hate to think what my electric bill would be without the woodstove in the basement.
My heatpump ac system is going on 21 years old getting noisier and Ive noticed the heat strips come on earlier than in years past.

 

[kenmac]

this morning...-40F outside

Guess I have nothing to complain about at 25 this morning. around 58 by afternoon. 40 as I type this

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

:laughing:We in Wisconsin have "weather issues" but compared to ND we should just shut up.

Oh wow, hey man, I didn't mean it to sound like that. It's just that this year hasn't struck me as being any out of order at all as far as temps go. I actually think we had a colder year last year than this.

I think the media just ran out of stuff to flap their mouths about, so now this is "news"?

 

[Sawyer Rob]

My system handles it just fine, throw a few pieces of firewood in the stove, then sit back and enjoy the heat...

SR

 

[s219]

I dont have an accurate way to measure loop temp. My probe thermometers I dont really trust.

But I do have a cheap plastic thermometer. The "resolution" isnt great.....but dropping it in the tank when its running and leaving it for ~5 minutes I am about 35-36 loopo temp.

That was last night....So that was after about 24 hrs of sub zero and almost continuous running.

I think properly sized.....loop "recovery" time is a non factor.

My unit is 4 ton.....That calls for 4 600' loops. I put in 4 800' loops. Plus the fact that most of the running is on single stage.....about half capacity....I dont think I am even coming close to needing to be worried.

With Probe thermometers....water going out is only ~2 degrees colder than coming in. So the ground doesnt need to do a whole lot.

Yeah, I routinely see only about 1.5-2 degrees F difference between entering/leaving water temperatures, which always seems remarkable to me in the overall scheme of things.

As for loop cool down and recovery, I want to study that more sometime. When I pulled diagnostics off my unit last year in ~ 0F weather after it had been idled a few hours, I could see the entering water temperature drive down pretty steady over time, from a start near 50F and then on down into the mid 40s. I was curious to keep watching it but didn't have time. But I've seen it in the 30s before, so I expect it didn't take very long to recover from 30s back to around 50.

Somewhere I have some charts that take the delta T and absolute T to get the efficiency and I recall there is a steady drop off as the absolute goes down, and at some point the ground loop is less and less able to absorb the delta T as efficiently and the system starts to hit a wall.

 

[truckdiagnostics]

I have two Geo units that are approaching 20, one heats the shop floor the other the house. The unit in the shop, in the spring if we get a cold snap and the frost has gone deep... I can get it where there is no more heat to get out of the ground. This time of year running flat out I have never had an issue. Never had an issue with the unit in the house at anytime of year. I maxed out the unit in the shop and I knew it when I did it. I bought it used and the price was right!

 

[Newtocvt]

Our owb used a bit more wood but kept us our normal 72f. Last two mornings were -30f and -32f.