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Author Topic: COP of 5  (Read 11083 times)

MrMag

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COP of 5
« on: December 12, 2007, 07:08:40 AM »
Just want my fellow Canadians, especially the ones living in Ontario to know about a new Government incentive.

The Ontario Government is willing to give you up to $5,000.00 to replace your existing furnace with a new geothermal unit.

I presently own 2 units from Waterfurnace. One is a closed loop system and the one in my shop runs from well water. They are older units around 20 Years old. My place was built by one of the original owners of Waterfurnace. The COP of my existing units are around 3. The new units range from 3 up to a COP of 5!  Unbelievable!

Check out the Waterfurnace website. There is a Canadian and American website. I am not sure if they have any dealers in Europe. I would highly recommend these units. (I am not affiliate with Waterfurnace in any way, just a very satisfied customer).

Tim

Koen1

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Re: COP of 5
« Reply #1 on: December 12, 2007, 01:24:10 PM »
I'm sorry, but how exactly do you see a geothermal power convertor as over unity?
I don't get it...
How can you get a COP of 3 or 5, in other words, how can you get 3 to 5 times as much energy from the earths heat
than the earths heat provides? How can you get 5 times more energy from geothermals?
Sounds impossible to me...
The best you can do is convert 100% of the geothermal energy into usable power...

MrMag

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Re: COP of 5
« Reply #2 on: December 12, 2007, 07:55:27 PM »
I'm sorry, but how exactly do you see a geothermal power convertor as over unity?
I don't get it...
How can you get a COP of 3 or 5, in other words, how can you get 3 to 5 times as much energy from the earths heat
than the earths heat provides? How can you get 5 times more energy from geothermals?
Sounds impossible to me...
The best you can do is convert 100% of the geothermal energy into usable power...

I am far from being an expert in this field. It was explained to me this way, for ever unit of energy you put into the system, you get 5 units of energy out. It works along the same line as a window air conditioner. How do you get cold air out of it when the temperature outside is so hot? In the winter time you turn the window unit around and now you are getting warm air inside. The biggest difference is that this unit uses a constant ground water temperature to do the conversion. Sort of makes sense if you sit back and look at it.

MrMag

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Re: COP of 5
« Reply #3 on: December 12, 2007, 08:08:33 PM »
The best you can do is convert 100% of the geothermal energy into usable power...

Another way to look at it is, say that the "100% of geothermal energy" is 10,000 BTU. This would mean that it would take me 2,000BTU's of electrical energy to get it.

CTG Labs

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Re: COP of 5
« Reply #4 on: December 12, 2007, 11:48:44 PM »
I'm sorry, but how exactly do you see a geothermal power convertor as over unity?
I don't get it...
How can you get a COP of 3 or 5, in other words, how can you get 3 to 5 times as much energy from the earths heat
than the earths heat provides? How can you get 5 times more energy from geothermals?
Sounds impossible to me...
The best you can do is convert 100% of the geothermal energy into usable power...

Hi,

Just because something has a COP>1 does not mean its overunity.  COP is different to Efficiency.  A solar panel as low efficiency of 15% but a COP>1.  A heat pump is will known to have COP>1 but a low efficiency.  It is well documented, but a lot of people think they mean the same thing?!  COP only cares about the input you have to pay for?!

Then again I could be talking out of my ass.


Regards,

D.

Koen1

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Re: COP of 5
« Reply #5 on: December 13, 2007, 01:03:39 PM »
I think it depends on what you view as the system.

Take your example of the heat pump; it needs a heat source to operate. If we include the heat source, the system of heat source + heat pump never has a COP > 1.

I guess that's how they viewed the geothermal thing too: the machinery to convert geothermal energy into usable (electric) energy uses 1/6th of the total produced energy to do its job. That leaves 5/6th output. The ouput is then 5 times the input, as long as we ignore the fact that 100% of all that energy comes from the earths heat. If we only look at the machinery we build, and ignore the heat source, then the machinery may have a COP of 5. But if we include the heat source, then of course not.

Lol then again, I could be talking bull as well.  ;)

z_p_e

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Re: COP of 5
« Reply #6 on: December 13, 2007, 02:22:52 PM »
Geothermal heating and heat pumps are OPEN SYSTEMS, therefore COP's >1 are possible.

That's how you can have COP=5. As Dave said, efficiency means nothing in the end. All you're interested in is how much heat (or energy) do I get out for what I put in.

If the end-result output exceeds your input, you have  a COP>1.

Koen1

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Re: COP of 5
« Reply #7 on: December 13, 2007, 03:29:23 PM »
Yes, isn't that what I said? Or did you not read the post?

Of course, technically even closed systems are "open" in a way, since they lose energy in the form of heat due to resistance or friction...
If the system was truly closed, the heat could not escape fro mthe system, and entropy would be violated...

z_p_e

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Re: COP of 5
« Reply #8 on: December 14, 2007, 12:52:36 AM »
I read your post, and to be honest I'm not sure what you said.

Paul-R

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Re: COP of 5
« Reply #9 on: December 15, 2007, 04:17:28 PM »
If we fly in ever more decreasing circles, we may end up flying up our own back passages.

Technically, nothing is OU. The energy comes from the ZPE, vacuum state or whatever.
Geothermal energy, for the few for whom it is available, is good news. A free lunch, once
the set up and running costs are paid for.