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Old 05-07-11, 10:01 AM   #1
green
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Default water well pipe and geothermal potential

I have a water well, a 2" inch pipe deep in the ground( I don't know how deep), that's hooked to a small pump and tank which is used for gardening and other non potable water uses.

I know that my water table is high--we live between two rivers and the sump pump has water running year round, and it runs regularly.

How does one determine the extent to which this existing water pipe could be used for a small geothermal system-- perhaps to heat the basement or first floor.

I stumbled into this site, and am still catching up on a lot of information.

I have read about open and closed loop systems, but have found very little info on my type of water wells. My guess is that it's too small, but since it's there I am curious to know its potential.

thanks in advance
tc

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Old 05-07-11, 01:03 PM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by green View Post
I have a water well, a 2" inch pipe deep in the ground( I don't know how deep), that's hooked to a small pump and tank which is used for gardening and other non potable water uses.

I know that my water table is high--we live between two rivers and the sump pump has water running year round, and it runs regularly.

How does one determine the extent to which this existing water pipe could be used for a small geothermal system-- perhaps to heat the basement or first floor.

I stumbled into this site, and am still catching up on a lot of information.

I have read about open and closed loop systems, but have found very little info on my type of water wells. My guess is that it's too small, but since it's there I am curious to know its potential.

thanks in advance
tc
So far, most of the interest on this site has been on Air Source Heat Pumps and on closed loop GSHPs.

There is a site, IGSHP that has very good manuals. The are expensive, too expensive in my opinion, but I know of no other source of information as good as these. In part, the reason for this blog is to make that kind of information freely available. If you are interested, you can become part of this effort.

You might email IGSHP and ask what manual they would suggest for you. I think that their original manual has information you are seeking.

If you are motivated, the 'homade heat pump manifesto' thread has enough info that you could build your own GSHP and then you could test the resources you have.

-AC_Hacker
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Old 05-08-11, 12:02 PM   #3
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Note:
I'm no expert.. But, I have read up on open loop systems a bit.
I wanted to know about freeze prevention etc. My 'knowledge' is pretty general..

A 2 inch, 100 foot pipe does not hold a lot of water. Under 10 gallons, I think.
Dipping a closed loop of copper down into the well isn't likely to be a good transfer source.

Unless the well walls are very porous to some moving ground water,
this looks like an open-loop app.

So, you need to find out what kind of flow you can get out of the well, during sustained pumping.

If you could get a lot of water out of the well without problem,
and, had another 'well' some distance away, to dump the water back into..

You might be able to harvest a usable amount of heat..


The 'Dump' well needs to be a fair distance away from the source well,
so the water that's recycled, has a change to regain the ground water temperature.

I guess it all depends on the ground water level, and it's movement.
If it's stagnate / the ground isn't real porous..?.
Maybe a pump-out test will tell. It would be interesting to see if you could
learn about underground flow, by lowering a temperature sensor into the well.
If the water temp is higher than expected, that might mean the 'two rivers'
are influencing your well.. Which would a good thing!!
(If/when water temp of the rivers is actually higher than ground water).

Keep us posted.. I have high ground water and have been thinking about
all that 60deg F water sitting down there, a few feet under my basement.
It sure seems a waste not to tap it..

Cheers,
Rich
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Old 02-24-12, 08:39 PM   #4
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A rule of thumb for GSHP is 2 gallons per minute per ton of heat. Before my heat pump was installed, the installer ran all the water sources in my house (faucets, showers, etc) for half an house to see if pressure dropped at all. It didn't, so I have a 3.5 ton unit, uses about 7 gals per minute when running, which can be more than 50% of the time on a cold day.
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Old 02-24-12, 10:19 PM   #5
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Wow! That's going to be up around 5,000 gallons after 12 hours.. That's a truckload of H20!!
http://www.trucktanks.com/img/waste/wo006-01.jpg
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Old 02-25-12, 08:13 AM   #6
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The outflow keeps my 300,000 gallon pond/pool full so I can stock it with yellow perch. The overflow from that irrigates my plants, then goes back into my sandy soil.
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Old 02-25-12, 09:16 AM   #7
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So, 5,000 gallons is 1/60 of your pond.. A drop in the bucket so to speak..

When I was a kid in south Texas, I recall eating a lot of perch.. (with a lot of bones).
It was danged good eatin too.. But I came to love Catfish later on and wouldn't
even consider perch if catfish was available..

How's Yellow Perch? Good eating??
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Old 02-25-12, 07:25 PM   #8
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Very nutrition. Most fish fries in the midwest use perch. Here in Indiana we have the largest perch farm in the world. By raising my own from well water, it is probably largely free of pesticides and other chemicals in most lake water. Cheaper than buying them too. Fishing for them is an added benefit, but I can net them as well. Fun for the kids too.
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Old 04-03-12, 01:15 PM   #9
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]Wow! That's going to be up around 5,000 gallons after 12 hours.. That's a truckload of H20!!

it would be 5000 gallons if you never shut off the system.. but since gshp are very efficient I would be surprised to see many of them running more than .25 of the time or 6 hours over the course of day
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Old 04-03-12, 07:18 PM   #10
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I plan to get an energy monitoring system that can monitor individual circuits so I know how much it runs. The installer said it would run 50% of the time, but I don't think it runs that much, and that is only when it is in the single digits outside. I spend about $1200 a year to heat my house, definitely cheaper than propane, my previous heat source.

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