For the past two months, Steve and I have spent most of our weekends in our new home:
We have been tracking our West Penn net meter which tracks the kWh we are transferring to the grid and what we are utilizing from the grid. Here is a graph of our current energy surplus:
We have had some home furnishings delivered from Room & Board.
We also had to make our first service call to Morrison Geothermal.
Several weeks ago, Steve noticed some minor leakage of the bluish tinged refrigerant from our TW series water-to-water (ground source) Bosch heat pump (http://www.bosch-climate.us/products-bosch-thermotechnology/geothermal-heat-pumps/). The technician was able to identify a leak in the one of the load side connections and promptly repaired it.
Several weeks ago, Steve noticed some minor leakage of the bluish tinged refrigerant from our TW series water-to-water (ground source) Bosch heat pump (http://www.bosch-climate.us/products-bosch-thermotechnology/geothermal-heat-pumps/). The technician was able to identify a leak in the one of the load side connections and promptly repaired it.
We have also had some consternation when our Domovea server indicated that the ground source heat pump had switched to cooling mode (possibly during one unexpectedly warm day) even though the pump was still heating the house via the in-floor heating. However, after our pump was repaired, it was clear that the pump was heating the tank that is responsible for the in-floor heating but the actuators were not opening to allow heating of the floors. This is the upstairs unit containing the actuators and valves:
It got pretty chilly. Steve contacted redblue Energy and sent some screen shots of our cooling-heating set point configuration for all of our rooms except the bathrooms. He also did some trouble-shooting of his own this weekend. It turns out that parameters had not been set for our non-bathroom rooms. Steve inputted some parameters for each room from our KNX system
to the Domovea server.
After that, functionality of the actuators and values was restored. We are back in heating mode. We are still concerned about the transition to cooling mode and plan to send some more screen shots like this one to redblue Energy.
to the Domovea server.
After that, functionality of the actuators and values was restored. We are back in heating mode. We are still concerned about the transition to cooling mode and plan to send some more screen shots like this one to redblue Energy.
We are also struggling with the complex issue of obtaining a mortgage loan application for financing the house ("cash out financing"). We were speedily approved for a loan but the appraiser was unable to appraise the house because of the lack of comparables. We are trying a different tactic: our financial adviser at Morgan Stanley
has referred us to an entity that has familiarity with appraising green homes (http://starsloanservices.com/.) We'll see how that works out.
has referred us to an entity that has familiarity with appraising green homes (http://starsloanservices.com/.) We'll see how that works out.
In the meantime, we have been enjoying the property including our pond, the spectacular night sky
and the easy access to the pristine Western Maryland Rail Trail:
Steve also captured this beautiful double rainbow which we think is a good omen for our new home:
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