I am from Long Island NY. I have an old well that is too scary for any professional to try to bring back to life. It is 350'. I thought about shoving a vertical loop in the column, but that won't be long enough for a 3 ton unit. Not sure I can even shove the loop in the column; love to read if that is possible as well.
Hi and welcome! What is the diameter of the well and the type of casing installed? Steel, pvc, other. Eric
The good news is that steel casing is a much better heat transfer medium than pvc. If the well is flooded with water a loop could be inserted and grouted is place. I am thinking a 1 1/4 loop should go down a 5 inch hole. Depending on the local lithology it may support your 5 ton load. I would contact Skillings and sons for a gut check, as they are active on LI geothermal drilling and installing. Hope this helps Eric
I have no experience, just learning. As I do my research, everything I'm reading says ~150' per ton. Does it change as you go deeper? What is grout? All I know about grout is that it is used to keep tiles in place. Sorry for asking so many questions, but it's not easy to get information.
Grout fills the empty space around your loop pipe in the well/borehole, which is needed to assist with heat transfer from pipe to earth. Length of loop pipe is somewhat dependent on the size of pipe used. I have 1600’ of pipe (4 boreholes, 200’ down and 200’ up of 3/4” each) for my 4 ton unit and all works as planned. Just a Long Island homeowner here... there’s much to learn from the pros here. Keep asking.
rules of thumb is one thing, but higher performing grout and larger diamerts certainly have changed everything. We are running a 5 ton and a 2 ton water-water on a single 500ft borehole together. It is all relative, and depends more on your loss and where you can understand and know the limits. Equipment sizes mean not much, but how many BTUs you pull out of the ground over a certain amount of time, and how you pulse the load on the loopfield.
