2008-05-28

Drilling Completed

The drilling is done. It was loud. It was dusty. It was awesome!

The drill holes were done at 11 degrees in one direction, and 22 degrees in the other. This is approximate based on my measurements.

Top view, looking down on the roof of the house:


Front view, looking at a cross section towards the front of the house.


Some videos:
Drill through overburden (aka. top soil).


Drilling through sandstone.


Feeding the copper heat exchanger down the 100ft hole.


The target.


The equipment arrives at 09:00.


45min later it's ready to go.


What I see from my living room.


Drilling gets underway.




It makes a mess.


What the drill bit looks like. It sounded LOUD. I measured it at 105dB at 5 meters away. When the drill shaft is pulled up and each link is separated - it would spike at 120dB.


Examine the hole.


Prepare the heat exchanger to go down. Notice the block of metal for grounding in case of lightning strikes.


Send the copper heat exchanger down the hole.


Fill it with silica sand (crushed quartz) up to the rock-overburden interface.


Then fill the top with "hole plug" bentonite. This is a form of clay that seals the top of the drill hole to prevent surface water from getting down deep in the rock.


Repeat 2 more times, and you're done for the day.


Next - we wait for the furnace unit to arrive and final stages of installation take place.

2 comments:

greenbuild said...

I'm at planning stage of building our house and we want to using a geothermal heat pump. Have you got an idea of how much power it will save you annually and how long it will take to pay off the installation investment?

... Smells Like Fries said...

http://smellslikefries.blogspot.com/2007/11/justifying-cost-of-madness.html

Summary:
- assume you're paying $7k for a new furnace anyways
- assume you'll get $7k from the gov't in rebates (check my blog for application forms)
- assume electricity and natural gas prices stay the same for the next 5 years (natgas will go up, so will hydro, but this is as good an assumption you can make right now)

5 year pay back for me, my house, in Ottawa. You local prices and weather pattern will changes things.