Just an Observation My pond is around 3 acres and over 20 feet deep in spots with probably a twelve feet or more deep average. A lot of water. The winds here in Kansas kicked up before christmas. We kept getting 20 mph, 30 mph, and more winds with temperatures in the teens and below. The pond hadn't frozen. The wind was hitting the pond directly from the north and west, it seemed to be circulating it even. This went on for 5 days at least, 2 of those days we were in a blizzard warning and the pond also absorbed 6 inches plus of snow. The new house I built uses geothermal with an open loop pulling about 12 feet deep in the pond (gravity feed) to a gravel bed around a 20 feet deep well casing, with the pump at 12-14 ft below pond level. The temperature of the pond was pulled down to 43.3 degrees, measured at the furnace intake. While this works I did screw up and let the air filter get dirty, which combined with the cold water and extreme outside conditions led to long cycle times in which the unit would freeze internally. It would automatically go to electric backup, I would reset it by turning electric off then back on. The pond finally iced over and I got new air filter on. Also the outside conditions improved a bit and there haven't been any more freeze ups. Tonight (jan 3 2010) will be single digits, but have not had a freeze up since the 29th. The pond temperature has came up to 45.5 degrees at this time. It stayed at 43.3 for 5 or 6 days and has just risen in the last 3 days. What a test right on the get go!
