Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Geothermal - thermostat shows "auxiliary heat on"

I listened to all the pros and cons of open vs closed systems. Then I decided which way to go based on logical(to me) reasoning and my circumstances.

Closed system:

Once the loop is closed there is little chance of contamination from pond or ground water. The fluid (distilled water and anti-freeze designed for Geo systems) protects the piping, pumps and compressor.

A closed system of loops on the bottom of the pond can be floated up and repaired if something ever goes wrong.

The Pond has reasonably stable bottom temperatures.

Dwight, I agree with the loops in a pond. Around here they were talking about trenching the loops into the soil.

I remember a few years ago someone was having problems with their geo system that had coils in the pond. The geo guy was blaming it on having an aeration system in the pond. I couldn't understand why they said that. If the diffusers are placed correctly, during the winter the water temp at the bottom of the pond shouldn't change vs. non-aerated water.

First, we do not have a geo-thermal system. We have a regular heat pump.

But every once in a great while something in the "brain" gets screwed up. I think it might be from an electrical spike when the electric flickers off or something.

What happens is I will notice our digital thermostat saying "heat 1 & 2" which means the heat pump is running and also the auxilary heat (in our case electric heat coils). Our aux heat should never come on unless it gets down around 0F degrees.

I go outside and the heat pump unit is not running. So the aux heat is doing all the work.

I shut all the breakers off to the unit. Flip them back on. Our thermostat goes into a 5 minute "lockout" (to prevent pump damage I think). Then after 5 minutes the heat pump starts up and everything works as normal. I think in about 5 years I have had this happen 3 times.

Just something for you to check. Make sure the primary system is working and that the aux heat is not doing all the work. In our case it is just a glitch in the system once in a while.

Probably not your problem, but something to check.

Closed system here. Trench was 300' long 8' deep and 12' wide. I had them put an extra "ton" into their calculation for the field.

If I had a pond in close proximity I would definitely have considered putting the field in the pond.

The way it stands here, we have a high water table in places and heavy clay soil. When the trench was dug there was water seeping into the hole. In spring this water boils to the surface like an artesian and makes a sink hole in the pasture.

Where the lines exit the basement, the trench slopes downward to the field. By my design, when we filled the trench we did a French drain in that we used fine concrete aggregate several inches deep and then covered with fabric. This way the foundation can drain to the geo field. I also set my sump pump up to discharge into the field. Having good moisture in the soil is a big help.

We are having the coldest winter to date since installing the system and having no problems at all. Of course this is our highest monthly electric usage yet.

I believe that early on there were a lot of contractors (maybe still are) learning how to build a geothermal system using on the job training. Since some really didn't know what they were doing, troubleshooting a problem was based on the "blame everything else first" troubleshooting technique. Blaming pond aeration fits that mold!!