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  • About
  • Training
    • CGD Courses Online
    • CGD Courses in your Office
    • CGD at IGSHPA
    • Register
  • Services
    • Feasibility
    • Residential
    • Geo Forensics
    • Peer Review
    • Design Assistance
    • GCHP & GHX design
    • Manage your GHX
  • Products
    • Ground Loop Design >
      • GLD quote
    • GeoCube
  • Projects
    • Agriculture
    • Commercial >
      • Steinbach Credit Union
      • Walkerton CWC
      • 2211 West 4th
    • District Systems >
      • Gibsons, BC
      • Seasons of Tuxedo
      • Miami, MB
    • Institutional >
      • Prairie Dale School
      • St. Pierre Church
      • College Universitaire St. Boniface
    • Multi-family Residential >
      • Bethany Manor
      • YWCA Elm Centre
    • Recreational >
      • Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre
    • Retail >
      • Neechi Commons
      • IKEA, Centennial, CO
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What went wrong?

The energy source for a GSHP system must be designed for the:
  • Energy loads of the building
  • The geology and thermal properties of the site
  • The land area available for the construction of the GHX
  • The capabilities of the contractors constructing the system
A GSHP system must be operated within the operating parameters of the equipment
Definitions

Summary of lake exchanger failure

An example of an unfortunate series of events during the construction of a school project, that individually would not have created a problem, but combined, caused the catastrophic failure of a surface water heat exchanger and shut down the system. 
  • The design of the header on the lake exchanger plates made if virtually impossible to remove all the air from the lake exchanger modules.
  • Some of the individual lake exchanger plates were blocked by air. More energy was removed from the water by the remaining plates, causing ice to build.
  • Electro-fusion fittings connecting lake exchanger plates to the headers were not well cleaned before fusion, creating weak joints.
  • Inadequate weight was added to the lake exchanger modules, allowing them to lift from the lake bottom when ice built on the plates.
  • The system was put into operation before the building was completed and before control system was commissioned. The heat pumps were simply activated without proper control, allowing too much heat to be extracted from the water, causing ice to build on the lake exchanger plates.
  • Back up auxiliary heat was not commissioned and couldn't prevent ice build up on plates.
  • Enough ice finally built on the lake exchanger plates, creating enough buoyancy to lift the lake exchanger modules from the lake bottom, causing enough stress on the weak fusion joints to break them, allowing the heat transfer fluid to leak and shut down the system.


The GHX designer, GHX installation contractor, mechanical contractor, general contractor and controls contractor could all share some of the blame for the failure of the surface water heat exchanger. Working with an electro-fusion fitting manufacturer and stainless steel lake exchanger manufacturer, it was possible to determine, with reasonable certainty, the cause of the failure. 

GEOptimize can work with you to determine the cause of GCHP system problems and help arrive at a cost-effective solution to remedy the problems. Better yet, we can work with you to provide an assessment of a proposed project and to provide training workshops for designers, contractors and system operators that can avoid the problems in the first place. 

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GEOptimize Inc.                 220 Portage Avenue, unit 1410, Winnipeg, MB, R3C 0A5, Canada               +1  204-318-2156