(* Beginning of Part 2 *)
Quote:
Originally Posted by phreich
However, there are folks using a recirculating mud method that go deeper, and one guy in Oregon that uses a combination of compressed air and water to go deeper.
Here are some links on the well drilling:
How to Drill Your Own Water Well
(this guy has been doing this in the deep south for years now. Although it's a .com domain, he's not trying to make money selling stuff -- it's really kind of a forum for DIY wells.
On this site, he discusses various methods, and this is where I found out about the recirculating mud method, and about the guy in Oregon using the compressed air and water method. I'm a bit confused about who this is -- the video is by a fellow named Paul Smith, but the kit is ordered from a guy named Lee on the Oregon Coast.
Here's a link to the video of the Oregon guy's stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...NS4awOxrI#t=37
Here's a page on the first guy's website that discusses this air/water method:
How to Drill Your Own Water Well
Their address to order the air/water kit is:
bluewaterenterprises@Safe-mail.net
No offense, but I think the augur method won't work very well for the depth that is needed at my site. |
In looking at the photos, from the lay of the land and even more so, from the vegetation, it looks very much like they are in Central or Eastern Oregon. I don't think that the Missoula Flood events reached that far. They probably don't have the rocks/cobble/boulder issues. So I really don't think that their methods would be successful in your location.
Quote:
Originally Posted by phreich
Soooo, I am looking to self-drill 8-10 50 foot drywells and use a recirculating closed-loop system like you are doing.
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Again, I was naive about what I would encounter when I tried to drill. I did run into rocks and cobbles, and they are a real problem. The problem is precisely this: the cobbles that exist are about the size of an orange, they are round. That is because they were violently tumbled in the beds of ancient rivers. The are hard because they were not completely worn into grains of sand... in other words,
they are the survivors, they are the hardest rocks left over from the Missoula Floods.
So what tends to happen is that you drill down and your drill pushes the hard round rocks out of the way, and when you withdraw your drill string, they fall right back into the way.
Quote:
Originally Posted by phreich
I see that some folks in the south are using extraction wells and pumping ground water and then disposing of it in drywells. Maybe I am missing something, but it would seem the energy needed to move the water up out of the ground would cost more than the better temperature differential the cooler ground water would have over the recirculated water.
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When you're pumping like this, if your pipes are purged of air, the down-going water can assist in pumping the up-going water, so the work of pumping is less than you might think.
Quote:
Originally Posted by phreich
I also wonder about the long-term effect of percolating that much water in the summer months into the ground. On the other hand, I could keep my lawn, flower beds, and garden VERY happy in the summer with all that water.
Actually, after writing this last bit about pumping ground water, I am wondering if maybe using ground water might pencil out after-all. Especially if I used it for irrigation purposes, and maybe for a decorative stream and pond. Hmmm, I'll have to think and do some more research on that... I am concerned about what the Oregon DEQ would say about doing this. I think they are scared enough about the possibility of leaking closed loop systems -- what would they think about the possibility of a contamination of an extraction/injection well system?
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For one thing, the water table falls in the summer, so you might not have the abundance that you imagine.
Regarding local DEQ, I think that they are reasonable, and if they have hesitation or prohibition about certain practices, it should be observed.
[QUOTE=phreich;38893]The major concern, of course would be the heat exchanger process -- if the heat exchanger ruptured, the compressor oils could go into the ground.[QUOTE]
If you cobble together a HX this could be an issue. But the manufactured HXs I have seen are more robust than the rest of the system.
I'm pretty sure that if you lost refrigerant pressure, your compressor would shut down or destroy itself before all of its lubricant bled into the water side.
Quote:
Originally Posted by phreich
However, I would think that a safety could easily be set up to shut down the system should the pressure drop due to a coolant leak. How worse or better would the contamination of the compressor oil be compared to the ethylene glycol typically used in close-loop systems leaking into the ground?
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Good idea.
Quote:
Originally Posted by phreich
I also am wondering about using the heat extracted in the summer to produce my hot water, and wonder how much I would save by using the GSHP to heat it from the ground source in the winter (I currently have a natural gas water heater).
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Nat Gas is pretty cheap, but ASHP is cheaper, if ypou hack together a system, and GSHP is cheaper yet, if you can hack one together.
Actually, living in Western Oregon, the weather is fairly mild, and an ASHP can work out pretty good, except for the few days when the weather really gets cold.
But the short answer to your bore hole drilling question is that local drillers have best luck using a percussion drill, also called a cable drill. With this method, the drill is really heavy, maybe 500 hundred pounds or more. You need a big engine to make it go, like maybe a car engine. So the weight is repeatedly lifted and dropped into a hole filled with water. Periodically, a "bailer" is sent down the hole and lifts out the chips. repeat until done.
The percussion device smashes and bashes its way through absolutely anything.
http://www.welldrillingschool.com/co...ingMethods.pdf
-AC