12-17-10, 07:57 PM | #31 | |||||
Helper EcoRenovator
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If I ran into the flowing sand I wonder if I could throw some of the really sticky silty stuff I've dug up so far down the hole and mix it up in order to make it solid enough to bring up on the auger. Whereabouts are you? Did you install a system or just experimenting? I'd love to know the details. Sounds like you went down pretty far but maybe for something else since you mention an air unit below? Quote:
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Thanks! and yes. |
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12-17-10, 08:32 PM | #32 | ||||
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Here's me: Quote:
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12-17-10, 09:29 PM | #33 |
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It is a full depth basement, for the 1920's. People were shorter back then, their expectations were lower, and digging and artificial lighting were both expensive. Hence, I have large basement windows, fully above ground.
If you can produce results from a 12' borehole, I might have to try it myself and see if I can bore an 8' hole here. I have modest heating and cooling needs, and a modest GSHP with a modest cold sink may be all I need. Any thoughts on just using a ground source heat exchanger? If you could heat the garage to 45°F in the middle of winter, that would be a huge improvement with (hopefully) less electricity consumption. |
12-18-10, 02:27 PM | #34 | ||
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But definitely for baseline heat I will certainly try it. My plan is to build things so as not to pigeonhole myself into any particular system. I want to get a ground loop in and play with it in different configurations. For example supplementing with solar collectors for heat in the winter and heat storage in the summer. |
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12-19-10, 12:23 AM | #35 |
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Iraq may not have had any weapons of mass destruction, but I do:
Larry made this for me today. Hatchet head welded to a 12ft pipe. Worked like a charm. Here's what was in my way: It's not a boulder but enough to stop my manual auger. After that came up I easily continued past 8 ft. |
12-24-10, 12:56 PM | #36 |
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[QUOTE=pick1e;10286]
He mentions some auto-convection heat pipes, which is cool. I wondered about that. I wonder if I could bury some before pouring a driveway to passively collect heat in the summer and melt the snow in the winter On the Trans-Alaska Pipeline something similar is used only backwards to re-freeze the ground hard during the winter. There is pipes at each pipe support that go down into the ground that have ammonia in them that boils off and gives the heat up on the fins mounted on the top. As the liquid re condenses and turns back to liquid it runs back down to the bottom of the device where the process starts all over again. Right now the ammonia is being slowly replaced with C02. The key is that it does not work until its really cold outside. I have often thought about building a few scale ones that you could run through an exterior wall and into the back of your freezer to help reduce your freezer run time when it is cold outside. The cheaper fix that I go with is to just set the freezer outside, it does not run all winter.. http://faculty.virginia.edu/ribando/.../pipeline1.gif http://faculty.virginia.edu/ribando/.../pipeline4.gif |
12-27-10, 08:32 AM | #37 | |
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Now that I think about it for the driveway though, you could probably get away with a passive ground loop... just turn it on for a day to melt the snow. You could run it in the summer too to store heat for the winter. |
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01-10-11, 12:14 AM | #38 |
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Enthalpy mining
Before I left town for a week I received a gift from Larry:
He brought over a nice piece of 22ft x 2in pipe sharpened at one end and a nice big ram. This was great for pounding through the rocks that were giving the auger a hard time. We could pound it in maybe 4 to 6 inches at a time but it was pretty difficult to work it back out of the ground, especially with one person. 18" pipe wrench necessary. At around 14ft we left the glacial till and went into the hard gray clay that was really tough. Ancient lake bed I guess. Oddly enough though it seemed less labor intensive to use the auger since there were very few stones. Even though it was very dense the auger seemed to cut through it nicely, I think because the particles are so fine and very few stones. Almost 2ft per hour unless I had to switch back to the ram. Maybe faster if I had a derrick built. Lots of good upper body workout just lifting the pipe out of the hole. Here's that nice, tough, sticky clay: So a few hours this weekend got me down past 18ft. At that point it was dusk and I seemed to be hitting rock again. I will try to hit it with the ram (a couple inches left before bottoming out) but it could very well be limestone. Either way I'd be happy with that depth. 25ft is my limit anyway since I don't intend to get well permits. I'm happy to have been able to get this deep with only peanut-butter-and-jelly power, no help from fossil fuel or the grid... aside from the manufacturing of the pipes, hand tools, and a few minutes of welding... but who's counting? Last edited by pick1e; 01-10-11 at 12:22 AM.. Reason: extra thought |
01-10-11, 02:16 AM | #39 |
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Pick1e,
Have you ever given thought about just driving a 2" sand point with a jackhammer? That is what I drove my water well with a few years back. 40' deep in only a few hours with a borrowed 90 lb jack hammer. I would think that you might be able to run a loop Down and back up then grout it in inside a two inch case. |
01-10-11, 10:48 AM | #40 | |
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My guess is that it doesn't work very well in this area due to the highly compacted clay- the displaced soil wouldn't have anywhere to go. But that's just a guess. The end of that 2" pipe I used to get past stones was open (no point, just a sharpened tube, so less material to displace than with a point) and it had to be brought up to be cleaned out at least every 6in. Otherwise it would get increasingly hard to drive even with that huge driver. Also it was interesting to dig down and bring up the soil to see what I was up against. Because of the history of glaciers here, what you find under the surface on your property can be totally different from what's under your neighbor's property. You might have more sandy soil where you live? If I knew anyone with a jack hammer I'd give it a shot for my next hole. Coming to Michigan any time soon? :P |
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