Princeton Satellite Systems has been in a leader in renewable energy with its SunStation home solar power system with battery backup. We introduced this product back in 2013. SunStation has lithium-ion phosphate batteries, the most stable and reliable batteries for home use. The core of the system is the Outback Inverter that seamlessly switches from grid power to internal power.
The solar system in the installation produces 7.3 kW of power, much more than the house needed for electric power including charging a Nissan Leaf and Toyota Prius Prime. The heating and air conditioning system was nearing its end-of-life so we decided to replace it with a geothermal heat pump. A heat pump is essentially an air conditioner that can both reject heat to a source and absorb heat from a source. The problem with both is that when the outside temperature is high, for rejecting heat, and low, for absorbing heat, the system loses efficiency. Modern air-source heat pumps are very efficient but do need backup resistance heating in some climates.
A ground source heat pump, or geothermal heat pump, uses the ground as the medium for absorbing or rejecting heat. The option we chose, due to land constraints, is to have two wells several hundred feet deep as the source. Alternatives are trenching, or a pond if you have one in your yard. The ground is always at around 50 deg F. The system was sized so that it rarely, if ever, needs resistance heating.
The geothermal system, which is made by WaterFurnace, was installed by Princeton Air. No changes to the SunStation were needed. The core geothermal system is shown below. The valves to the ground loops are in the foreground and the geothermal system is on the left.
The lines that run to the outside ground loops are shown below.
The system has a preheater for the (still gas) hot water heater. The gas water heater was less than a year old, so it didn’t make sense to replace it. The preheater is an electric hot water heater that does not have the heating coils connected.
The SunStation is shown below. The Outback inverter is on the bottom left. The boxes on top provide arc protection, which is now included in the inverter. The batteries on on the right and the battery management electronics between the inverter and the battery cabinet.
The well digging was quite a project. This picture shows the drilling rig.
This second picture shows the yard after the drilling was complete. Drilling took three days total.
The following system shows the SunStation with geothermal in operation. The Prius Prime is charging which is most of the load. The system is still sending considerable power to the grid. On average the house powers itself and two other houses.
Geothermal, with solar and battery backup is the ideal solution for new homes and for renovations to existing homes. There is no reason to even have a gas hookup anymore. Contact us at SunStation for more information
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