I have probably written it here before. We have a project where we receive warm water from the neighbours who produce this with their mountain warmth pump. There are supposed to be solar panels set up as well, but after 2,5 years, these are still not in place. Maybe this summer, but I've heard this before...
We have been running the project the whole winter. When we started in October, the water entering our house was 32C. This went into our CV kettle that has a lowest temperature of 30C. So in October, the CV kettle didn't have to work to warm up the water for the floor heating. Unfortunately, the shower water is not going through the same system and needs to be warmed up seperately.
But as the days got colder, the water entering our house got colder. At the coldest, it was down at 25C, while 26C was very common. This water was warmed up by our kettle to 30C and then sent in the floor.
As long as we took care the thermostat didn't switch off, the water we returned was colder than the water coming in. We put the thermostat on 23C (much too warm for our house), and the house got 18C at max in practice.
Yesterday we finally had a meeting with the neighbours about this system. We told our experiences. Turns out the neighbour has been receiving 32-33C warm water into his house. While our water was down to 26C. And it is coming from the same large tank. Something weird was going in. So we did a test with changed water pressure and putting the pump higher. That worked, the water into our house changed to 32C.
It is a pity that we didn't have a meeting earlier. It didn't help that the neighbour who has this system in his house was living in south America for the last half year. So there was no one around who actually understood the system. But at least now, we find that now (when the weather is a lot warmer than in the winter) the system works well, with 2 of the 3 houses connected. But we still don't know who it will work when all 3 houses are connected and lived in and it is a proper winter.
Because we have been receiving so little warm water, which was so cold, the neighbours have decided that we didn't have to pay for this winter.
We saved 17% of our energy bill. We presume that the warmth pump at the neighbour's house uses less than our saved amount to warm up the water. When the solar panels ever are in place, this should be the main heating source in all months except for November to February.
I really want this to work, as it will make our house a lot more energy efficient. When we sell it (in a year or 2 when we start FIRE, hopefully), we can also sell it as a house with a (partly) green energy solution.
