problem with new climatemaster tranquility 27

[lakewoodcr]

I have a 2300 square foot house recently had geo thermal installed. It has 3 zoning areas with Emerson big blue 1F95-1277 thermostats which are set at only 66*F. This unit is the climatemaster tranquility 27 4 ton vertical closed loop that was working efficiently after many trips last year. I have been trying since early october of 2011 to get it working back to normal. Unit constantly runs on stage 2 then cycles to aux even when the temperature is 40 degrees outside. stage 1 is running constantly 6 degrees cooler (80*F) and air barely moves out of the register(use to whistle move so fast). Air speed picks up on stage 2 but the temperature rise's only 4 degrees. Air temperature leaving the plenum is 86 degrees. On days when the temperature is below 30 degrees I am using anywhere from 120-160 kw hours a day . Last winter it was able to keep up on stage 1to heat the house. Installer has been back many times but says the unit is working up to specs.No fault codes have been tripped on the unit. Only symptoms besides staging issues is the air flow is drastically lower and high kwh usage. Change the filter every 4 weeks. Was told by factory rep last year that aux heat I should rarely ever use. Now they're saying its normal for it to kick on in 30 degree weather. Any advice/ help is appreciated. My home feels like a toaster heating with electric heat and not geo.

[jongig]

I'm sorry for your troubles. I have the same unit and after some trouble in the install process mine has worked great. I'm not near you and your issues are to such a great extent that I really think you need a good troubleshooter.

In my experience knowing how it works and what it's doing will help figure this out. The unit only moves from stage 1 & 2 and aux because of what the thermostat tells it to do.

The first thing is to understand what the thermostat is asking the unit to do and why, i.e. my unit is set to 71 and has a 2 degree differential to stage 2 and then a 4 degree differential moving to aux heat. I never use aux heat.

On stage 1 you should measure the air temperature in and out of the unit at the unit. You should measure the temperature of the fluid from the outside loop in and out. If you read your manual it will tell you how to count the blinking led on the main board and determine the CFM the fan is running at.

My experience on the board is that if you can post good data you’ll get good answers.

For what it’s worth everyone involved told me the unit was just fine but after help from this forum I was able to get those involved to actually fix my situation and I’m since happy. I didn’t find the manufacturer helpful.

BTW, my thermostat was not working correctly and my main board had the wrong setting for my CFM needs. Just these two items took me minutes to figure out after I read enough and understood what was going on.

Good luck.

[SkyHeating]

Did they grout your vertical bore holes. It sounds like your loop may not be functioning properly. Has anybody checked your EWT and LWT and heat extraction? If so what are those numbers? Your loop could be freezing up if it's not long enough/ installed right and sometimes this can take a year or two before it shows.

[skippedover]

I agree with Sky. It sounds as if the problem is in the earth coupling. Was it a certified IGSHP company that designed and installed the system? They should be able to tell you if there's field/well problems. Variable speed pumps being used? There are many issues that can affect the heat of extraction. You need some considerable training and knowledge to accumulate good data and then diagnose the problem. Why are you not calling your contractor?

[jwaddell]

Im not sure if this relates to climate master but with waterfurnace you can have problems similar to this if the dip switches in the zone panel are not set correctly. Just a thought, but if only one zone is calling and the thermostat says that it is in emergency heat may not actually mean that it is in em heat, there has to be a certain percentage of the total capacity calling for the zone panel to "tell" the heat strips to come on. If that is not it then I agree that there must be a problem with the loop/water pressure

[wahoo]

Just a short but true story of a past GSHP "problem". Had a customer call in early Feb. with high electric bill in home that was about 1 year old. He could not figure out why his GSHP heating bill had doubled. While in his home I happened to walk by his fireplace and hear air "whistling" past the fireplace glass doors. I asked if he had used the wood burning fireplace recently, and yes the family used it over Christmas vacation, but seldom used otherwise. The flue damper was left wide open on the fireplace and heated air from the home was flying up the chimney!!! He had never thought leaving the damper open would affect his heating. Colder it got, and the more the wind blew, the more air would fly up flue......
Another story about someone leaving the attic access door (skuttle hole) completely open in the winter....ugh......same effect!!!