Drilling the hole (well) for geothermal vertical collector

And then we started … I went into action and made a deal with one drilling and mining company from my country to drill holes. It is important to make a real contract for this service and to sign the contract from both parties (you and company). Important things about the contract:

• article with deadline and penalties for not meeting the deadline must be included


• article about possible damages made by company and their responsibilities (e.g. in case where the driller damages your house, because he was not careful enough when he was moving the drilling machine – see it on the picture)


• If you are not sure, see legal advisor

We first planned to drill two holes for 100meters. The first one was O.K. When drilling the second one some problems occurred, the hole (well) was not stable enough and we only reached about 60 meters. According to the calculations 160 was not enough, so we made the third well for another 60 meters. Together we have 220 meters.
Important things:

• wells or holes should not be to close together, it is recommended to keep 10m distance between two wells


• It is quite noisy when drilling,… your neighbors will complain if you will not inform them in advance


• It could be quite messy around drilling machine and underground water could erupt from the hole


• If you already have a house with nice colored façade and the machine in near the house, be sure to protect the house and window

We were drilling about 14 days.

Choosing service & product providers for my heat pump system

With clear vision, goals, implementation plan and installation schema I started searching service and product providers/companies for my heat pump system. I started with my local companies and technical stores to find out what kind of product they are offering, what the quality is and what are the experiences and prices. The most of the time I spend for choosing providers for heat pump device, water pumps and water heater. Other parts are not so complex and it was easier to decide. I spent also a lot of time finding the right service provider for installing the system and for drilling the holes for geothermal collector. Finally I decided for local service companies in Slovenia. At that time (2004/2005) service providers were not so connected and trained to work together as a team … connecting them was also an issue for me. I'm not showing the list of those companies because I will first ask them for being the sponsor of this heat pump blog. I hope I will be successful :-)

Finalizing Heat Pump Implementation schema and installation schema

After all parameters for my home heat pump project were calculated, all kilowatts, meters, centimeters, constants were known, I have prepared final implementation schema (partly shown it the picture) and detailed installation schema for pipes, valves, other pumps, collectors, electrical installation and other stuff. Installation schema was later used by service providers for implementing my project. If you would like to have a copy of detailed installation schema, please send me an e-mail to: toskog@gmail.com.

Calculation of energy losses and energy needs for the building

Building insulation is the most important factor when calculating energy loses or on the other hand energy needs for heating. Heating system must be aligned according to building energy loses. Here are my final numbers and calculations:

Building parameters:

• Building square meters (room surface): 180 square meters to heat
• Type of heating: ground heating
• Building walls: 30 cm brick and 10 cm isolation (glass wool)
• Building roof: wood structure with, 21 cm of isolation (glass wool), standard knauf
• Building ground floor (to the ground): 5 cm concrete, 8 cm isolation, 5 cm concrete, 40 cm sand layer
• Windows: thermo glass

Coefficients:

• Windows thermal transmittance: U=1,1W/m2K
• Glass wool thermal conductivity: 0,035 W/mK

Final calculation for heat pump system installation. We need:

• Heat pump with output power: 14kW + 6kW Optional Extra Heater for Extreme Low temperatures
• Geothermal vertical collector according to ground structure: 2x100m
• Water Heater: 300 liters

There were also other numbers and quite complicated parameters and calculations. I think shown numbers are enough to get an impression. I will put some calculations in PDF to this blog for download in near future.

Planning the Heat Pump project

After studying the technology of Heat Pumps, existing solutions in the region, local providers and companies, documents and other things related to the project, I have started with detailed planning of the project. I first tried to figure out and list all activities needed for the project, after that I tried to arrange them in to the correct order – what to do first and what to do next. I checked my list with several companies discussing this issue and that is how I supplemented my plan and also verify my project plan. After having all activities in right order I started to plan costs and deadlines of the project. To be as much as possible exact, I have spoken with several providers, drillers, manufactures to discover all costs and realistic deadlines. The result was almost 4 month long project plan. Of course, it is possible to finish after one month, but in that time it was not possible, because you have to wait for the equipment, for the drillers, for calculations… at that time only few installations existed and it was hard to get quality and available company for implementation.So what to do first… the first thing in my plan was activity “Calculation of energy losses and energy needs for the building”

Choosing renewable resource (source)

When deciding which renewable resource to use (air, ground water, water from lake or river, ground source – geothermal - heat of rocks) it is necessary to consider many aspects, the most important are:

• what resources are available in the neighborhood and what are temperatures (e.g. temperature of underground water)
• what resources you are allowed to use according to the local regulation (e.g. in some countries it is prohibited to use underground water in others you should get special permission from the government)
• what is your climate (winter air temperature)
• how much money are you prepared to spend for the project (e.g. air sourced heat pump installation is probably the cheapest, ground sourced heat pump (geothermal) installation with vertical collectors is probably the most expensive)
• are you planning to use your heat pump also for water heater
• are you planning to use your heat pump also for cooling
• how much isolation coat are you planning to put on to your house and what would be the energy loss of your house
• what kind of heating are you planning to implement (low temperature floor heating, high temperature)
• what is or should be coefficient of heat pump performance (I will explain this term latter)

When considering described issues you should definitely involve someone who is familiar or even better professional in those calculations. At the end you should know all calculations, energy loss, primary source temperature, type of heating (e.g. floor heating) and other parameters.
For my project I have engaged one local professional who was very familiar with this numbers and calculations. I have paid to him 100 € and it was worth paying. Finally I have decided to use ground sourced heat pump with vertical underground collectors (geothermal).

What is heat pump – explanation for beginners

You have probably noticed that warm air is rising behind your fridge when operating. Well your fridge is your every day heat pump cooling your food and at the same time heating your kitchen. This is the basic working principle for heat pumps – cooling down one medium (in case of fridge this is the food you have putted in) and at the same time warming up other medium (in case of fridge this is air in your kitchen). Similar to your fridge is also the operating principle of air conditioning device for cooling your home, deep freeze and other devices.
Why so much talking about heat pumps to be on of the cheapest ways to heat you home … it is because of simple calculation: for example you input in your heat pump about 80% of renewable resource, which is for free (e.g. water, air, earth), and 20% of electrical power = and you get 100% of energy for heating your home. That means that you pay only 20% of electricity to get 100% of heating power mostly because of renewable resource (see simple picture in this post). That is something to think about.

Maybe you are thinking now… is it possible to design cheap home made heat pump using old fridge or more of them… well, it is possible, but I will describe this maybe some other time.
Next … Choosing renewable resource for my Heat pump project.

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How I started with Heat Pump Project

I was always amused with new technology that could help our earth to be cleaner and that could be used for more environment friendly living… so that is how it started. When internet era came I used my computer to search for solutions and I then I have found the right one at the right moment. I started to build my own house and I needed also heating. At this time (2000 – 2002) in my country (Slovenia) only some pilot projects concerning reusable energy were present and no advanced technology was available. I have searched the web and solutions in northern EU countries and worldwide. Then I found technology for using renewable energy with heat pumps for heating. I started to search the whole web for some solutions, pilot project, documentation, articles and so on. I learned a lot about this technology about renewable resources and that is how my project started.

See my next post: Heat Pump Project planning