The date on this video is 2008. I wish Tom Pittsley would post an update telling after 7 seasons, how well it worked out. The depth he shows suggests to me he might need supplemental heat or cooling. But depending on his location, this might work just fine. But and update would tell us for sure.
The manifolds were located in the mechancal room and no connections were needed below grade. If a weld was to fail it is easy to fix when easily accessable.
You get more fluid in an area space by looping the piping versus a straight line pipe. If you have 100 ft of space and run a single line out, you have 100 ft x the diameter of the pipe = x Cubic feet of Fluid. If you loop it around, you have the circumference of the circle x diameter of the pipe = X cubic feet and multiply that by the many circles you can fit into that 100 ft of space = more fluid, which makes more efficient heat absorption for heating or cooling.
Maybe, BUT....the question becomes cost versus benefit. There is only a limited amount of energy available at location/moment and more pipe means drawing more energy. My question is the slinky "overkill" given that there are 3 of them in close proximity to each other. Drawing too much available energy at any moment? Maybe! While it is true that energy comes from below still...its a question that a geo program can best figure out. And he didnt talk about confirming that issue. It wouldve been useful to confirm that question.
OMG!! that is a lot of work!!! it looks and sounds expensive, yes the savings come after... maybe after you refinance the house and after the house sells, this is good for the new owners and realtors
I live in North Carolina, and just replaced my old gas pack with a 2-ton geothermal heat pump DIY kit - and it is awesome!! I installed one 385-foot deep, simple, low-pressure loop (no manifold/balancing!), and the loop water is about 60 degrees in February! I installed the rest of the system myself. It cost me about $14,000, and I'll get 30% of it back from federal taxes AND 35% back from NC = NET COST
I forget what they call your idea, but someone has applied it in commercial applications. I read a case study about a high school that was located near a major water supply trunk line. The city water main was diverted thru the mechanical room, and used as a thermal sink/source for heating and cooling.
you can pressure test before, but during a Backfil it is just as easy for a rock or some foreign object to kink or put a whole in the pipe. If you pressure test after the backfil and all is well, then you know 100% the loop will operate fine. If you were to pressure test before backfil you still leave room for error on the loop
If you separate it into 100`ft sections,coil each section into 55gal poly drums,then fill each drum with pea gravel. It would save a hell of a lot of digging and be more efficient at holding a steady temperature. You dont need an uber expensive heat pump either. I live in a 3br,1500sq.ft.home thats heated and cooled with such a set up using 3 transmission raditors mounted on box fans,with a 500gph pond pump circulating the water from the 4 vertical drums buried outside to the fan mounted radiators inside. The top of each drum is approximately 3`ft.below the surface,where the ground temp here in Central Florida stays at about 72°year round. If your not scared of a shovel,and have some basic handyman skills. This is a pretty simple system to build. One of these days I'll break down and get a solar pond pump,and build permanent housings for the fans. At the moment,I have neither the money,or time to do so. Goinpostal
My dad claimed he knew a guy that did a geothermal cooler in FL, but the house was full of mold all the time. Don't the radiators get a ton of condensation on them?
Bringing all your circuits into the home to make a manifold must take up some serious room.. We put our headers in the ground , pressure test after backfil, that way in the mech room we only have 2, 1" 1/4 header pipes entering the house. either way has pro's and con's
I don't quite understand why contractors don't use copper geothermal lines instead of PVE. I know there is a reason; however, I am thinking it seems like a good idea to put in a copper grid that would distribute the pumped water through a "gridded" field. Please let me know what your thoughts are.
This is not geothermal. This is ground heat source, but heat is from sun, not from earth. For geothermal you need to be in specific hot location, and dig really deep, like 1000 feet at least. Also, I would say your two loops are a bit too close to each other. Instead of making a one big trench, you should instead dig two smaller trenches well separated. (16 feet separation between both slinkies). As of the depth, and soil, it is a complex topic and depends on a location and other stuff. 6-7 feet sounds good, but I know people who put it even 10 feet low.
Let me ask what happens in places where the ground is hard and heavy with stones. This project serves here not true. Which requirements needed in the field.
Not geothermal....... it's ground source, geothermal is when you drill 10km down and use heat from the hot rock those slinkies are heated by the ground which is heated by the sun.
yeah this could have all been said in 2 minutes. No way am I ever getting geothermal system at my house... Wayyyy too much work. Going with an IQ drive..
