going green with geothermal
I’d like to install a geothermal system with a water well in a new home. I can’t seem to find any engineer/ installer/contractor who’s done such a job in Brooklyn. Any suggestions?
I’d like to install a geothermal system with a water well in a new home. I can’t seem to find any engineer/ installer/contractor who’s done such a job in Brooklyn. Any suggestions?
Despite the painful start-up cost, the investment pays for itself many times over, and fairly quickly too.
Simple calculation: the geothermal system will save a constant $2,000 per year in fuel costs. But fuel prices, you may have noticed, don’t remain constant. They rise, a trend which is likely to continue.
Yes the lot size is the main issue. My lot is 40×100. I was told that the 2 wells need to be far apart to make it work. Hopefully that’s enough space.
I thought there was only one guy who ever did this in NYC, in Tribeca, on Reade St. off Greenwich, north side of the street in the only super modernist building on that block. Although he died, there is still his architectural firm in that building. Try researching the archive of the Tribeca Trib, the local neighborhood paper.I think he also did the neighbor`s house nextdoor. I remember reading that in order to drill so deep into the bedrock he needed to obtain an oil drilling permit. Hope this helps. -Sally
We installed a closed-loop system at our house in RI in 2004. It’s been super-efficient, but we had several acres to play with. As pointed out above, you need room for drilling rigs. The wells themselves can be vertically placed, as I’m sure you know, but it takes a bit of room for the drilling unit and pipe-handler. If you have a driveway and a backyard, it may be possible.
I’ve heard that there are several large coops on the UWS with geo systems, and remember a NYT article of the same. Anybody know of this?
Good luck.
There are some problems with trying to install geothermal in brooklyn – 1st is design and permitting – there is a lot of up-front analysis and investigation required. This is expensive and specialized and takes a long time to pay back. The second is space: unless you have a huge lot, you will probably have to put in a standing column well, and it is hard to physically get a drill rig into position. Most geothermal installers are not accustomed to working in the city. Faced with challenges such as these, you have to really want to do it, and have the $$ in hand as well.
Thanks Steve,
I checked the site, and one of the issues they mention is the difficulty with getting a permit. That’s the first thing one place I called told me to check on. I’m hoping with all the incentives this year that it’ll be something the city will cooperate with.
My curiosity was spiked when I read your post. You may wish to visit this site:
http://scienceline.org/2007/10/19/env-driscoll-geothermal/
Went into detail about some of the issues with this type of system in NY.
Steve
http://www.thetinkerswagon.com
I have a friend of mine who builds these….in Australia 🙁
But seriously i cant imagine why most people dont do this more often.
Sure there is a big upfront but once that is covered pretty much zero heating/cooling bills every year after that.
Makes sense to me.
there was one that i bid on in manhattan, but they are really expensive, so i doubt if anyone in brooklyn is willing to lay out that kind of up front amount