HYDRONICS
Ohio home’s geothermal system reduced electric use by 90%
it comes to all of the electrical functions in his home, including his heating and cooling system. His electrical expertise is well founded: Waltermire has worked for 20 years as an energy adviser, providing professional recommendations regarding various home and building systems to co-op member/owners of St. Marys, Ohio-based Midwest Electric Inc. A subsidiary of Buckeye Power, Midwest Electric serves 12,000-some members in a seven county area comprised of lush, green hills and fertile fields. But Wapakoneta, birthplace of
D 50
first moonwalker Neil Armstrong, does not supply Waltermire’s drinking water. “We’re in a rural setting, where we don’t have city water available to us,” said Waltermire. “So everybody in our area has well systems and pulls groundwater for domestic-water purposes.”
A DIY guy Waltermire’s water well is also
now supplying the flow for an open loop geothermal split-system with electric submeter for energy monitoring. He installed the system himself in 2006. “In my previous life — going back
to the early 1980s — I installed and serviced a lot of geothermal heating and cooling systems,” said Waltermire. “Later, I did large industrial heating and air
Dave Waltermire at his home in Wapakoneta, Ohio.
conditioning mechanical work on a mix of different systems, so I probably have a little more background than a lot of folks.” So it’s no surprise that Waltermire
is confident about retrofitting his home’s heating and cooling system, a task he’s now accomplished twice. “This house was built in the ’60s,
and we bought it in ’92,” Waltermire said. “When we moved in, it had a liquid-propane furnace that was way oversized for the house, which is 1,800 square feet, plus a finished basement of maybe 1,200 square feet that is now ducted, but we keep the ducts closed unless we’re using the basement while entertaining guests. When we bought the house, there was no ductwork at all because there was a
hot water radiant heating system. “We decided to put in all of the
registers, ductwork, a new furnace and a very good air-source heat pump for the air conditioning,” said Waltermire. “Just doing that reduced my propane use enormously, because we went from about a 50 or 60 percent efficient boiler, which was oversized by about 300 percent, to a correctly sized furnace. I did all of that work back in 1994.”
Software reveals solution “A couple of years ago, I used
ClimateMaster’s GeoDesigner software to run some projected numbers on how we might benefit from geothermal in our house. I use the software on a daily basis in the work I do. The results were eye- opening. It was clear that we could begin to save a lot of money if we’d install a ‘geo’ system, especially considering that energy rates were quickly outpacing our income.” Waltermire decided to buy a high-
efficiency geothermal split system from ClimateMaster. In October of ’06, just before an unusually harsh winter season, he installed a four-ton cooling coil matched with a three and a half ton heat pump condensing unit. “Through the years, performance has been flawless,” said Waltermire.
“It got very cold that first winter, and then again last winter, but the geo system kept us very comfortable.”
Dave Waltermire prepares to connect to the ClimateMaster's refrigerant ports for routine check of system performance.
e Continued on p 52
ave Waltermire, who lives in rural Wapakoneta, Ohio, knows what he wants when
phc may 2011
www.phcnews.com
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