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Additional Resources News/Press Release PROJECT PROFILE Location: Venue: System Type: PROJECT DATA Structure Type: Area Heated: Tubing Layout: Outdoor Design Temperature: -25°F Heat Plant, Size: System Supply Water Temperature: 120°F Tubing Size: Number of Loops, Tubing Spacing:
| Grundfos ALPHA Circulator Saves Energy New Generation of Circulator Pumps Spurs Dramatic Energy Savings for Off-Grid, Solar HomeHomeowner Michael Sperry replaced a conventional circulator in his radiant heating system with a new Grundfos ALPHA™, cutting power consumption from 186 watts to 19 watts with no sacrifice in comfort. After all, “we are accustomed to keeping our thermostat at 76°F during the coldest months,” he explains.
Indeed, at just over 5,000 square feet, the four-bedroom, three-story home does not sacrifice creature comfort; nor, for that matter, electricity. Because the home generates all its electricity from solar power, everything – from mechanical systems to appliances – optimizes energy use. In addition to fueling the home’s radiant heating system and domestic hot water, the solar photovoltaic panels provide power for all the modern appliances and amenities you would expect in a 21st century American household: washer, dryer, dishwasher, personal computer and even a 42-inch plasma television. In fact, one of the major challenges for the project was to power the home’s heating system while using less energy than a 200-watt light bulb. The system today exceeds this seemingly implausible goal, drawing just one-tenth of that 200-watt target – 19 watts – thanks to a revolutionary new circulator from Grundfos Pumps.
Emphasis on energy savings: “In designing a radiant heating system for a luxury home such as this, we would normally spec 10 pumps: a primary pump, a secondary loop pump, an injection/mixing pump plus seven zone pumps,” explains heating contractor and system installer Terry Burns. “In an off-grid home, this was totally unacceptable, as it would have required roughly 900 watts of power per hour.” To scale back the energy usage, Burns drew upon technology normally used in commercial-industrial applications. He replaced the seven zone pumps with pressure differential valves (which require no electricity) and eliminated the injection/mixing pump, as well as the secondary loop pump. As a result, the one and only remaining pump in the system design was a single circulator to bring hot water from Sperry’s outdoor wood-burning boiler to the main manifold, where it travels throughout the home’s 9,000 feet of Uponor PEX (crosslinked polyethylene) tubing buried in the basement slab, as well as stapled under each of the two upper floors. But while the single-pump design performed as expected, its energy use exceeded plan and placed a significant drain on the home’s electric power, which limited use of other appliances and devices. “The original circulator did the job, but was an energy hog,” Sperry remarks. “We have a spreadsheet showing what all of our appliances and electrical components draw throughout a normal day, and we monitor it very closely. The original pump was drawing 186 watts continuously, and depleting our solar battery bank by roughly 15% overnight.” System designer Burns spent months searching for an alternative, but “could not find anything that fit our parameters in terms of pump head and flow rate,” Sperry explains. “There simply was nothing suitable for this application that would reduce energy use.” Breakthrough technology: In March 2008, Burns learned about the breakthrough Grundfos ALPHA and immediately realized that this high performance, low-energy-use circulator was his answer. “Although the ALPHA pump wasn’t yet commercially available, I knew this was the only thing out there that could solve our energy issue,” recalls Burns, who was able to get a unit to test in the Sperry home. “The pump exceeded the manufacturer’s claims – and my wildest dreams – in every category,” says Burns, “energy use, performance [homeowner comfort] and its silent operation.” Intended for residential and light-commercial hydronic applications, ALPHA features the innovative AUTOADAPT™ function that automatically and continuously adjusts circulator performance to the changing needs of the heating system. The circulator will automatically find the lowest possible operating-efficiency point to meet demand, notes Burns, thereby saving both energy and money. This winter of 2008-2009 — one of the coldest on record in the Upper Midwest — delivered a quick and dramatic payoff on Sperry’s new investment. The ALPHA cut electrical consumption by 90% almost immediately, without any sacrifice in personal comfort, according to Sperry, who notes: “We are accustomed to keeping our thermostat at 76°F during the coldest months.” Meanwhile, the backup gas generator that ran for 205 hours during the winter of 2007-2008 was needed for only 86 hours this past winter, despite the colder temperatures because there was enough battery power left to keep the radiant system running. This reduced gas usage resulted in a 70% decrease in the gas bill from one winter to the next, reports Sperry, from $565 to $170. Moving forward, Sperry estimates he’ll use his generator for just 50 hours, as he becomes more familiar with the system’s operation. “We couldn’t be happier with the ALPHA’s performance. We’ve had no problems at all, and the pump is virtually silent, which is heaven compared with the obnoxious hum that reverberated throughout the house from the previous pump. “I talk with a lot of off-grid people about the heating systems we all use,” Sperry continues, “and they warned me that my biggest headache would be the water-circulating pump, because it typically uses so much energy. But the ALPHA has proven to be an absolute dream. For any homeowner who wants to move off-grid or simply to maximize energy efficiency, this is the best way to go.” ABOUT GRUNDFOS For more information, visit the website at www.grundfos.us or view the Grundfos Corporate Sustainability Report at http://www.grundfos.com/about-us/reports/sustainability-reports.html. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook. For editorial assistance, contact: 1) John O’Reilly or Joel Williams, c/o O’Reilly/DePalma, 32 West Nebraska Street, Suite 1C, Frankfort, Illinois 60423; tel.: 815-469-9100, extension 302; fax: 815-469-2555; E-mail: john.oreilly@oreilly-depalma.com or joel.williams@oreilly-depalma.com. 2) Helen Mubarak, Communications Officer, Grundfos. Tel. 913-302-3702; E-mail: hmubarak@grundfos.com. # # #
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IMAGE GALLERY: Grundfos ALPHA Circulator Saves Energy
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First introduced by Grundfos in Europe earlier this decade, the 
