Home Systems Information

Updated every several minutes.

In the diagram above, the following data is relvant only when the HVAC compressor is in operation:

Historical Data

When using the following charts, you can vary the reporting interval by modifying the "From:" and "To:" values.

Use the following notation when specifying the From and To values:

Home Temperature and Humidity Data

Shows information for living spaces, garage and outside air temperature.

HVAC Data

Shows temperature and humidity levels for HVAC supply and return in addition to inside living spaces and outside air.

Ground Sourced Heat Pump (GSHP) Data

Shows ground loop temperature as recorded from sensors attached to copper supply and return pipes within the HVAC unit as well as outside air temperature. Since ground loop temperatures are only valid when the HVAC compressor is operating, you need to focus on the lower temperatures in the following graphs. The higher temperatures reflect the ambient temperature in our basement as the ground loop pipes warm to the same temperature of our basement while the HVAC compressor is not running.

System Overview

Our home is approximately 3,200 sq ft on the main level with roughly 2,000 sq ft of finished area in the lower walkout level. Our main set of windows face South. The house is fairly well insulated, uses 2x6 exterior walls, fiberglass blown insulation for the walls and attic and has decent quality Loewen aluminum clad Douglas Fir windows.

The HVAC unit is a WaterFurnace Envision series E072 6-ton Ground Sourced Heat Pump (GSHP) unit. A series of 6 vertical ground loops in 150' deep wells are tied to the GSHP heat pump. This unit provides both heating and cooling.

We use Diamond Accumulair 30x36x2 MERV 13 air filters in the HVAC unit. The filter is changed every 3 months.

Since our home is well insulated, we installed a RenewAire EV300 Energy Recovery Ventalator (ERV) to constantly draw in fresh air from the outside, introduce it into the return air ducting and extract stale air from the return ducting and exhaust it to the outside.

In support of the ERV and to ensure that we're constantly filtering the inside air, we run the HVAC blower fan continuously. We believe that doing this also helps to even out the conditioned air throughout the home.

In Winter, our main level temperature setting is about 68-69F while we keep our basement at 62-63F.

In Summer, we rely on an AprilAire 1720 Whole House Dehumidifer to keep humidity levels in check while in Winter, we're currently relying on a Honeywell HE365A Whole House Humidifier to maintain proper humidity levels. Since this fan powered humidifier depends on warm supply air temperatures to operate effectively and GSHP units don't normally supply very warm air as compared to gas powered furnaces (typically in the mid-70 to 90s F as compared to low to mid 100s F), we're currently investigating whether a steam powered humidifier would be more effective.

A series of temperature and humity sensors are positioned inside and outside the home and attached to key HVAC pipes and ducts to monitor and record temperature and humidity readings. In some cases, these readings are used in real-time by a home computer server to control the HVAC functions. See our blog for more information on the home monitoring system.

A key next step is to monitor when the GSHP kicks on, when the desuperheater is active and when the emergency heat is turned on. I'd like to get a better idea of run-times for these aspects.