We have a Water Furnace with a closed loop in our pond for our new 3,000 sqf log home that we just moved into the first of this year. We have a 36� well that�s used just for the house water. Our system cost us under $14,000 total. I�ve never heard anybody complain about dealing with a closed loop. I mean what is there to deal with? It is sealed, hold less the 50gal of water and glycol solution, and has a pump that�s not much larger then my fist. I guess if you had a well that could never go dry, that had soft clean water, and a place to dump the water you�d be fine. If you can�t meet all of those things you can�t have an open loop.
Here�s the different system for geothermal.
http://www.waterfurnace.com/residentialloops.asp I know a little about HVAC also. I�m a DOL card carrying HVAC journeyman and I work for a large industrial manufacture that has a facility that runs three 150 ton Trane chillers that uses 4 large wells and a river for an open loop system. So I know what�s involved in moving a lot of well water. It has a lot of iron in the system, but you might be lucking and have no problems. But I guarantee you�re one of the few not on of the many.
The reason I started this topic was not to talk about geothermal and HVAC. I get too much of that at work and I understand them. I wanted to discuses aerators and the best times to run them and how much they change the water temperature at the bottom of a one acre pond. Also I disagree 10 degrees is a lot for any person or machine to deal with especially a machine that controls a 10 degree difference between two environments. The only thing that I can thank that would help is with the flow or water turn over that�s caused by an aerator might help with moving heat and even by keeping the slug of the bottom that would reduce heat transfer.
I�ve decided to run an aerator through the summer because the advantages out weight the disadvantages, but for the purpose of ice fishing alone I don�t want to run an aerator during the winter. Can anybody tell me the needs of running an aerator during the winter for FISH?
1. Is it only when ice or snow covers it for long periods?
2. If only when the snow covers it can I drill a hole in the ice and pump water on the snow to melt it?
3. Can I run the aerator only for a set time each day or will that cause problems with the water temperature lays that have formed under the ice?
4. Does cooling the water down by running it continuously cause problems for the FISH, if so at what temperature?
Tuzz,
Price the systems. If you don�t have a well that can produce a lot of water add the price of drilling one to it, and remember not every property has a well that will produce water let alone lots of clean water.
