3 wells drilled, tubing in, cement in place. Rig and equipment GONE! ↑
At long last, the three wells are done. The equipment arrived here on May 16, drilling began on May 23. The original projection was about 7 days of drilling. It took 30. Needless to say, neither the drilling company, Verde-Sol Air or the two of us was thrilled with the delay.
The issue was our soil. Most think it was because of rock, but no, it was because of sand. The soft soil kept caving in on the hole as it was drilled, and the water that is used to eject the rock dust and debris was causing erosion and caverns. They had to put nearly 80 bags of cement into the first well to stabilize it, the second was almost as bad. The third was a bit better because they stopped drilling and added cement as soon as they saw sand come out.
So now we have three holes, filled with tubing and bentonite (to lock the tubing in place and facilitate the heat transfer). Next step is to trench for the tubing to be joined together and brought over to the house. Then it will go up the wall into the attic and down into the garage, where the main unit will be. After that, the ductwork in the attic will be merged into one system (we have two separate HVAC systems now). Then the main unit will be installed and the new water heater installed.
Water heating is another benefit. A "desuperheater" takes heat from the geothermal system and preheats the water for the water heater. If additional heat is needed, then an electric heating element kicks on to heat the remainder. Currently we have a natural gas water heater, and it accounts for the bulk of our gas usage. Since we make a surplus of electricity, it makes sense to switch to electric. When the changeout is complete the only gas usage will be for clothes drying, cooking and the BBQ. Home and water heat will be geothermal.
The only downside right now is that we are in the heat of summer. When we started the project we expected to be done in May, when no A/C or heat is needed. Now we will be "offline" for a couple of days in 95-100F heat. I may have to put a portable A/C unit in the bedroom temporarily so we can sleep!
Working on the last well ↓
Get an idea how much mess for each hole...↓
Tubing on the spool, ready to go down the hole↓
Tubing in place, cement mixer standing by↓
Hole filling up with bentonite slurry↓
1 comment:
What a mess, But well worth it!
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