Talk:Geothermal Heating and Cooling

This book is meant for those with a general interest in Geothermal Technology, and those who want to become qualified as heat pump installers. My background is that I just took a course on it, last year, and still have most of the technical books etc. that I was trained from. I will not be copying from those books, but attempting to create a completely new book based on their information. And what I remember from the course.

Tenatively I am thinking about having a chapter run down something like this:

Geothermal Technology, in which I introduce the various technologies available and why most of them are impractical for urban settings.

Ground Source Heat Pumps, in which I introduce the various ground source Geothermal Technologies

Ground Loops and Open Loop Sources, Where we describe the idea on which this technology is based

Refrigeration Loops and Heat Pumps, Where we describe how the efficiency is created

Air Loops, and Basic HVAC

Heating Load Considerations, What cools the building

Cooling Load Considerations, What heats the building

Hourly, Daily and seasonal variations, What varies over time

Meterological Sources for Local Weather conditions. Where to get the stats.

Heat Loss of buildings, How to calculate how much heat is needed

Heat Gain of buildings, How to calculate how much cooling is needed

Calculating Peak Heat Loss/Gain for the building, A necessary step for sizing the heat pump

Heat Pump sizing considerations, How to figure out how big a heat pump to install

Ground Load, How to figure out how much heat you will be pumping into/out-of the ground

Considerations for sizing your Ground Loop


 * Soil Conditions and how to evaluate them


 * Mineralogy how rocks affect soil conductivity


 * Which is better Swamp or Desert?


 * Frost-Line and Water Table


 * Should the loops run Vertical or Horizontal?


 * Coil or loop?


 * Parallel or Serial?


 * Headers in-ground or in-building?


 * Under Soil, or Black-top?


 * Under Yard or Under Building?


 * Open or Closed loop?

Testwells and other tricks

How Heat Pumps Work, the heat pump technology

How can Heat pumps both heat and cool, Bidirectional Heat Pumps

Why are Ground source Heat pumps more efficient than Gas Fire, Electrical heating/Airconditioning, or even Air to Air Heat Pumps

Choosing a Heat Pump, what do all those numbers mean?

Changes in Plans and why it isn't always a good idea to add a new addition

Choosing the size of your supply pump

Soil conductivity versus speed of fluid through loops, Reynolds Number and size of pipe

Sizing and finalizing the design of your ground coil

Trenching and Drilling, makes a mess of the site.

Some Gotcha's in Drilling and Trenching

Protect the environment Parge your vertical holes when you install the vertical loop

Protect the pipes build them on top of the trench and pressure test them before lowering them into the hole.

Special Handling requirements for Polyethylene Pipe

Pipe Specifications for Ground Loops

Pipe Fusing Techniques

The Frost-line and trench depth

Anti-freeze and Fluid Conditioners

Entry Points into the building

Charging Purging and Testing the ground loop

Filling in the trenches and holes, and landscaping considerations

As Built Drawings of Ground Loop

Connecting up the heat pump, why it's good to have a purge pump

HVAC Options, Forced Air, Fan/Coils, radiant heating and hydronics

HVAC, why retrofits of homes are not always a good idea.

Forced air Plenum Sizing

Forced air Placement and sizing of heating pipes

Best placement of registers for Cooling/Heating and Compromises most often used

Balancing the System by Design

Fine tuning and fixing Balancing Errors

Marketing and Opportunities

Related Job Market

Industry Associations

--Graeme E. Smith (talk) 08:28, 8 July 2009 (UTC)