The Homemade Heat Pump Manifesto

[AC_Hacker]

Originally Posted by pick1e

AC,

My qualms with some of your methods aside...

You have a lot of good resources linked here and there throughout this huge thread, have you considered compiling them- for example at the bottom of the first post?

Not a bad idea.

Gather up the links, send them to me in an email via the ecorenovator thingie and I'll edit them in.

it would be a good idea to include the permalink address of the post where the link was located along with each link...

Regards,

-AC_Hacker

[pachai]

Originally Posted by AC_Hacker

Gather up the links, send them to me in an email via the ecorenovator thingie and I'll edit them in.

it would be a good idea to include the permalink address of the post where the link was located along with each link...

If it would be helpful in some way,
I have some tools that may be able to
harvest the whole thread from the forum.

Of course, accessing the forum thread database
directly is the clean way, but if that's not available,
I should be able to download all 37 pages.

Maybe we can then vote for which ones should be
combined to make a wiki or a FAQ.

Seth

[AC_Hacker]

Originally Posted by pachai

If it would be helpful in some way,
I have some tools that may be able to
harvest the whole thread from the forum.

Of course, accessing the forum thread database
directly is the clean way, but if that's not available,
I should be able to download all 37 pages.

Maybe we can then vote for which ones should be
combined to make a wiki or a FAQ.

Seth

Seth,

Sounds good. I like the democratic approach

Someone else started out doing a wiki, but the enthusiasm died after a few weeks.

The blog approach has its advantages, in that it invites other people to document and present their projects.

The FAQ has advantages in that it distills the most essential information.

The wiki provides an accessible way for people to share information.

I think if I had to choose one, I like the wiki rather than a FAQ.

The wiki would suggest another site, also ok.

BTW, I just secured the domain name "DIY-GSHP.INFO" for five years... no server yet.

Regards,

AC_Hacker

[pachai]

What I do for a server is I have a Linode.com virtual Ubuntu Linux.
I configured apache to host domains at /my/path/to/domains/domain.com
What this means is on the server side, creating a domain is
"mkdir ..."
I point all the domains I host to one IP address.
(and all the mailbox records go to google :-)

This approach works for me, because I don't
enjoy cpanel; I am either in an editor or a wiki,
not much in between.

I love pmwiki.
Here's a domain that I seeded for a friend -
he has done everything that did not require root access,
and he is not a programmer.
(just a mere Rocket Scientist :-)
I like what he did with the Combustion page...
http://pachai.net/rgbutler/index.php?n=Main.Combustion

[AC_Hacker]

pachai,

Sounds good, send me an email via ecorenovator email and we can hammer out the details.

-AC_Hacker

[pachai]

B"H

I had a day off and needed to get my 5 y.o. out of the
kitchen....

So I did an experiment = I'll try to upload pics.

I drilled down 2' without breaking a sweat.
I should be able to go down 20' easily.
Unless I hit bedrock. But Bedrock might be OK
because there is a high water table.
But then I'll know if I need a pro to do it.

This tool ought to be usable for horizontal boring also.
THAT might be an option when my builder digs out
a hole 10' deep x 20' wide x 30' long.

This is 1.25" pipe. There is an adaptor for 3/4,
and a plug. Some Plugs are available with hex head.
The Auto Parts store had a 1.125" socket for 1/2" impact wrench.

[AC_Hacker]

Originally Posted by pachai

I drilled down 2' without breaking a sweat.
I should be able to go down 20' easily.
Unless I hit bedrock. But Bedrock might be OK
because there is a high water table.
But then I'll know if I need a pro to do it.

Awesome drilling rig dude!

Any drilling rig that works is a good drilling rig.

If I'm interpreting the photos correctly, you have some kind of swivel and you are using city water to flush out the debris, is that correct?

Here was my experience, might be helpful to you:

In my case, I had about a foot of humus, organic debris and dirt, no problem.

Then I hit clay at about 1 foot to about 4 feet. Bad for hand digging, bad for vacuuming, good for rotary/water drilling.

Then at 4 feet I hit sand. Good for dry vacuuming, bad for water drilling (cave-ins that grabbed & held my drills) ok for dry hand augering. Here I learned to use mud drilling and a mud-recirculating setup, but the dry vacuuming was working out well enough to continuing with that.

The other big problem was the large stones (AKA: cobbles) that I hit. That was why I welded up the grabber claw, to fish them out...

Keep us posted as to your progress!

Regards,

-AC_Hacker

[Vlad]

Finally we can see some real work and not bla bla bla. Soon you will see the reality is a bit different then theory. Good luck. I will wait until spring (we just had almost a foot of snow today) and do my drilling. At 60 feet I was thinking "not a big deal to go to 120" but at 70 feet i changed my mind (reality changed it). I am getting some extra drill bits (real ones). I really do not want to give up an idea about 120 feet holes and drill extra 6 holes even more shallow. But as I said theory and reality are different.

[pick1e]

Originally Posted by pachai

This is 1.25" pipe. There is an adaptor for 3/4,
and a plug. Some Plugs are available with hex head.
The Auto Parts store had a 1.125" socket for 1/2" impact wrench.

Cool drilling pipe, I tried same design too! but got stuck in 2cm gravel about 4' down. I'm trying to track down a post hole digger that will go deeper than 5' in wet soil (we just got a ton of rain, my basement is flooded.)

I know you only went down a couple feet so you might not have had to flush the inside of the pipe but can I assume you would pull the pipe out and flush it away from the borehole?

Vlad, what method(s) did you use to get down to 70 feet?

[Vlad]

I built a monster compare what pachai and AC-hacker used. I used mud rotary method of drilling. You can find some pics on page 29. I changed many things since that but I went toward bigger stronger.... My drilling rig has hydraulic drive with over 4000 lb-in torque. I used 15 hp gas engine but switched to 5 hp electric. I am waiting for spring. I have no reason to fight weather

Gravel actually is very difficult to drill. You can not use regular bit because it is very hard and you can not use tricone bit because it gets stuck.