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Old 08-28-17, 03:39 PM   #231
nokiasixteth
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Sounds like you got a place to set a screen at for water wells too if you ever needed it just need some development.

Yeah i never dug in anything like that we done lots of stone sea rock and sea shells no quartz. Well at least far as i know

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Old 09-10-18, 08:08 AM   #232
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--Its been a while since posting and since the rain has me on hold for drilling the next couple of weeks, here's an update.
--The current setup got me through summer just fine (max loop temp at 92F on the hottest days) and also through last winter though it required help from the propane stove (loop temp minimum 22F). This was with 400 feet of pipe.
--I've been drilling additional holes this summer and have been heavy on the project lately until the rain hit on Saturday. So far, 300 more feet of hole has been drilled and only two holes left to do (100 more feet) and the drilling will finally be complete. Then, just need to drop the pipes in, trench and plumb. Should easily be accomplished in the next month or two before the snow fly's. With 100% more loop capacity, I hope that by being able to allow the heat pump into the second stage and higher loop temps, all heating will be geothermal this winter.
--Another nice addition was getting the desuperheater hooked up and running, so have also been making hot water for most of the summer. Its all helping to bring the electric bill down, which i've so far been very happy with. As long as winter heating goes as well this year, then all of this effort can be called a success.

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Old 09-21-18, 11:46 AM   #233
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Default Drilling is complete!

Geothermal drilling is FINALLY complete. With double the geothermal capacity, stage two can run on the heat pump and the loop temps should stay in a more efficient range. Eight new holes drilled this summer making 800 feet total drilled in 14 holes. Over 600 feet was into solid limestone. Added to the drill this year was a universal joint to help stop the machine from rocking around from mis-alignment, leveling bolts to help the mis-alignment and the double v-belt pulley's. A single 5/8" belt just wasn't getting it done and burning up too often. Now I just have to drop the pipes in, bury, plumb, flush and this very long event is a complete and successful DIY job that will hopefully heat the house this winter without help from any other more expensive source.

Edit: Also forgot to note that I added the water solenoid valve on the right so that when the drill stopped so did the water. This run happily on one of the 220v phases running the motor. One other addition was a switch at the bottom of the rig to stop the drill when it bottomed out. Both of these saved a lot on water and allowed the machine to run unattended as it would either bottom out or the VFD would overcurrent and shut down. Either way everything including the water would stop automatically.





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Old 09-21-18, 01:10 PM   #234
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Congratulations! This is an amazing project.
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Old 09-29-18, 04:19 PM   #235
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Trenching is complete. It went much faster than expected. With all of the rain lately, the little Cub Cadet cut through the dirt like butter.

Fusing the U bends in a new way this time and its much much faster. In the previous holes, I used thick HDPE sheet to drill a 90, fuse one to each pipe, then fuse the blocks together. I then had to cut and grind the end until it fit in the hole. Now I just cut a 3 inch section of HDPE rod, drill two parallel holes, then use a rotary rasp in the holes to hog out the area in between. This is one less fuse and no grinding afterwards, as it already fits the hole. I tried to find black HDPE rod, but could only find white. Turns out that mixing the colors during fusing makes no difference.


Here you see what happens when you try to fuse HDPE to ABS. It just doesnt work. Not that I thought it would. My brain went haywire when I ordered it. I knew I needed HDPE rod, but for some reason bought ABS.

Tomorrow, I should have all of the pipes in the holes and hopefully all of the outside piping fused as needed. Might even start pushing the dirt back in if there is time.
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Old 11-21-18, 09:02 AM   #236
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Congratulations! Just checked back into your project. It must have been a hell of a lot of hard work pulling the entire drill stem all the way out, then all the way back in to get the 5 ft core, then all the way out to retrieve the c ore, then switch back to the drill and put that all the way down to start drilling again! - all for each 5 ft of drilling!
And you were using 5 ft pipe sections? Or your shed may be taller that it looks?
A couple of questions - what did you do about grouting and what heat pump did you go with?
I'm about at the same point in buying a whole house system after testing out a 3/4 ton unit with a 100 ft hole.
The grout or water immersion would probably be really important for you because I think heat transfer thru solid rock is so much higher than thru earth but you have to transfer thru the bore first to get there!
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Old 11-23-18, 05:06 PM   #237
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Yes, the pipes were 5 foot lengths. The rig was about twice as tall and left about a foot to play with after subtracting for the pulley at the top, mounting, hydraulic motor, universal joint and water swivel. The job was a whole mess of manual labor. I woke up the day after the drilling ended and felt like a free man!
For grouting, limestone dust was dropped in while shaking the pipes until the hole was full. Not ideal but its working well. This will likely settle over time and leave a gap at the top, but it will compact at the bottom giving better heat transfer at the lower depth. I went back and forth on using sand or limestone dust after realizing that pumping in a grout wasn't going to work for me. Since the heat transfer is better with limestone, I went with it. On top of that, I think most of the whole will stay wet year round.
Using two different heat pumps for different parts of the house. The first is a 1 ton PTAC, Tranquility 16. It was a new, old stock from a hotel job in Jersey(ebay). The main unit is a two stage, 3 ton Heat Controller with desuperheater from surpluscityliquidators.com.
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Old 11-23-18, 09:22 PM   #238
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How much power are you using to heat with?
What is your loop temp? What kind of temp delta through the geothermal heat pump?
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Old 11-24-18, 06:13 PM   #239
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Current air intake temp is 72F, output is 95F.
Current loop temp out is 32F, in is 49F.
The 1 ton unit is using 1.3kw
The 3 ton unit, currently running first stage (2 ton) is using 2kw.

Air temps are on the 3 ton unit. I haven't measured the temps on the 1 ton unit in a while.


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How much power are you using to heat with?
What is your loop temp? What kind of temp delta through the geothermal heat pump?
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Old 11-24-18, 06:24 PM   #240
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Great Numbers! It is working good.
If my install has those number I will be supper happy.

Do you see the loop temp change much from the Oct to end of winter?
How much power does it use when the second stage kicks in?

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