I am considering installing a geothermal system myself. I have a backhoe and a trencher so digging is not a problem but my property is sloped . I have ten acres but the spot where I would put the horizontal loops is about 20' lower than the basement floor of my house. Would this be a problem with the flow of the water through the loops
High and welcome! Friction loss and head pressures required to circulate the fluid are all a part of the design before you dig. Design before dig, the slope is no problem. Hope this helps Eric
Thanks for the reply. Would it be better to run the loops up and down the slope or across the slope or does it not matter? Also are the loop kits available from Ingrams water and air of good quality?
Up, down, sideways; doesn't matter with a closed loop with respect to head loss, but having the supply and return ends of the loop at the high point will help with purging air out of the lines.
THanks for the reply, The heat pump will be the high point of the system. My trencher will only go about 4' deep. Im assuming the system will work better if I get the pipe down deeper. I live in northeastern ohio if that makes a difference.
Yes, the deeper the better, regardless of where you are located. With them being only 4' deep and you being in the north, just make sure you don't put anything above the lines that might be affected by frost heave. In the winter, the lines will likely be below freezing and that can cause damp soil around the lines to freeze.
Actually our house that we live in is a manufactured home on a crawl space. Our back yard slopes off real bad and I want to have a walkout basement dug under the house. I would like to put in the geo system at the same time the basement is put in. I am going to have a workshop in the basement so I want it be heated also to atleast 65 degrees or so. I thought about using geo to heat hot water in the slab to heat the basement but then I assume I would need a seperate heat pump to heat the house. Would it just be better to put in one heat pump with a new duct the length of the house and put registers in the bottom to heat the basement and hook the house registers to the top of the duct to heat the house?
