[dremd]

Originally Posted by AC_Hacker

dremd,

It sure would be useful if you could get some loops into the Bayou water. I certainly understand why you can't, but it sure would be useful.

So, as I understand it, you're 15 feet above and 20 feet back from the bayou, right?

That's about right +-3 feet, and when the water is up, I'm 8 feet above water level.

Originally Posted by AC_Hacker

So, your water table is 15 feet beneath your camp. Other than getting loops into the bayou, your answer is 15 feet below your feet.

It's typically a tad deeper than that, but not much, that said, the well draws water not that much better than the bayou..

Originally Posted by AC_Hacker

Too deep to trench, but a rotary water drill just might work really fine.

So horizontal drilling? I'm not following you here.

Originally Posted by AC_Hacker

You ought to do a little asking around about your soil conditions near your lodge. Ask well drillers, ask GSHP drillers (for use in A/C).

On that end of our geographical change ( I live where the west begins (yes seriously)20 miles from house is the swamp)wells are easy to drill (not that they are difficult on the prairie that I live on) and the water table isn't nearly as drawn down by crawfish/ rice ponds (they use surface water in the swamp).

Originally Posted by AC_Hacker

All of the drilling problems that I had personally, were due to rocks that were left after prehistoric recessions of ancient glaciers. In fact the other folks that I know in this area, who had problems drilling, had those problems because of fist-sized to football-sized rocks and cobbles. I just bet that it has been many, many, many millennia, since Louisiana has seen any glaciers.

It has been a while, the majority of our landscape has been brought south by the Mississippi, in fact my camp would be about 5 miles away from where the Mississippi wants to be, and would be if it wasn't for the control structures at the split with the atchafalaya (where the Mississippi wants to be bypassing Baton Rouge and New Orleans and leaving their shipping industries high and dry.
That said, drillers start seeing large solids around 500-1000 feet and that is typically coral (I've got a nice piece of coral on my shelf from 2,900 feet below a few miles from my house). The majority of the well drillers I know drill for oil, not water.

Originally Posted by AC_Hacker

I have heard of very easy drilling done by some of our Southern Brothers, who encountered nothing more serious than sand and clay... so before you pull the plug on the idea of drilling or trenching, tap into the knowledge of some of your local drillers.

Definitely way easier to drill here than anyplace with rocks, only soil issue at camp is that it doubles as an adhesive building up around your boots when wet, locally referred to as Blackjack.


They may tell you that it is truly unreasonable to DIY something like that, and that you need Very Big Power to punch holes in the ground. If that is the case, then don't proceed down that road.
[/QUOTE]
I have known people to DIY vertical wells near camp, apparently not terrible.

Originally Posted by AC_Hacker

But if you are not up against cobbles or bedrock... you could have a very good chance of success.

It's amazing how, once you start asking around, local lore on this issue starts to come out of the woodwork.

Some closed loops sunk down into the water table a pretty good way would sink a lot of heat, and you wouldn't need to worry about anything ever silting up or getting clogged by some kind of green swamp growth.

That's what drew me to the marine style heat exchangers, relative impunity from swamp growth, and limited digging.

Originally Posted by AC_Hacker

But then there's that bayou... how deep do they dredge it???

Around 20 feet water depth, current bottom about 3-5 foot water depth.

Originally Posted by AC_Hacker

I don't know if you have gone over any of Brad_C's posts on EcoRenovator, but he is doing a DIY open loop A/C, in Perth, Australia. He isn't on a bayou, but he is utilizing flowing ground water, and he has had to deal with filtering out stuff that could clog his HXs (yes, he is using a huge brazed plate). Brad_C is Brad_C, and he seems to be pretty much unstoppable. But for you, a mortal, you are right, an open loop system is not the place for brazed plate HXs.

I have not run across any of his threads, I'll look him up soon.

Originally Posted by AC_Hacker

Acuario, over in Spain did some interesting work with homemade HXs... In fact I think he really started a DIY tube-in-tube trend.

I found him after starting this thread, cool stuff.

Originally Posted by AC_Hacker

Then it looks to me like randen, up near Toronto, Canada, took Acuario's idea of how to DIY a tube-in-tube and made it simpler and even better.

So, you can build your own tube-in-tube that wouldn't be prone to clogging.

Hope I've been able to get your gray matter bubbling just a little bit here...

And yeah, those marine units do look pretty nice, if you have the cash... but they still need water.

I don't really have the cash for the marine units, if they were absolutley perfect, I'd consider dropping the coin, but for less than ideal, they are out of my price range.

[QUOTE=AC_Hacker;29459
Good Luck!

-AC[/QUOTE]
Much awesomeness, thank you very much!