How has the geothermal heat pump been working?
Great! I have a separate kWh meters on the heat pump and
water heater. I can also track its consumption, and computer heat pump
efficiency:
| Month | Heat pump kWh | Cost | Water heater kWh | Cost | Average temperature |
| February | 614 | $38 | 416 | $26 | 37 F |
| March | 361 | $22 | 527 | $33 | 39.5 |
| April * | 72 | $4.40 | 197 | $12 |
*First 23 days of April
The annual lion's share of energy will be consumed by the hot water heater. Most of its energy is wasted by the recirculator. Once I have the remote on/off switches in place, it should improve. In my case I should have installed a second heater in the far end (master bath) of the home to avoid the long run of hot water.
While not shown above, the heat pump's efficiency (COP)
was measured to be 4.0. This means that my electric bill will be 25% of a
resistive heated home.
Currently a portion of our domestic hot water is provided by the heat pump's
desuperheater. This hot water feeds a tank which feed the domestic hot
water tank. I will abandon the desuperheater and use this tank for a
evacuated tube solar collector.
More info on solar water collectors
Port Angeles Solar Water Heat Demo project (installed by Air Flow of Sequim)