Steve Dragger
New Member
I just purchased a new home (it was a bank owned so it's about 200% more house than I would normally afford) It has 2 Geothermal units (5 ton and 3 ton)
Best I can tell the 3 ton cools the lower level (so almost never needed) and the 5 ton cools the rest of the house.
Open loop system and (pulls from well dumps into creek) talking to the original owner (now 2 sales removed so no reason to lie) he said the well would deliver 20GPM 24/7/365.
Talked to the guy who installed the pump (a 20GPM Grundas I believe) he said the pump could run full bore and never drop the water level.
The house sat unused for about 3+ years. Well only produces 6gpm now.
well is here:
http://ohiodnr.com/water/maptechs/wellogs/appNew/report.aspx?s=c&wln=558120
Brief stats:
Aquifer Type: LIMESTONE
Total Depth(ft): 160
Test Rate(gpm): 15
Static Water Level(Ft): 60
Now, the local well guy said "Well the problem is that the well is too deep, they probably hit water in the sand at 70-90ft and then kept drilling to the limestone, they used a solid casing so when the well was being used the water ran down the outside of the casing and into the bottom of the well. After disuse the paths down the side of the casing probably got filled with sediment. So they came out and fitted a valve on the wellhead and put 50lbs of dry ice in the well and sealed it (hoping to "reopen" the channels to the water.)
To no avail, still 6GPM. "Yep that's what you're getting from the rock, you need another well to get to the water in the sand"
So I'm having a second well dug, hopfully it will be 12GPM+ but if the well is dry/only does 2GPMetc, is there any way to use that as some kind of reclamation/discharge well?
If not now I've got a well and a vertical hole, if I drill one more well can't I make some kind of semi-closed loop system? (ie pipe my hot exhaust water through the two deep wells for cooling and put back into the system?)
I'm at a total loss here, I bought my dream home but the cost of getting the geothermal to work might mean I have to sell the place. And it's 6000sqft so there's no way I can afford to heat/cool with a conventional system. No one wants to talk to me about options, the only option is "Drill another well". I lucked out into getting $25/ft for the new well. (Of course ohio screws you for $1K for a permit "just because we can")
What are my options/good fallbacks thoughts etc...?
Again, any help GREATLY appreciated.
Thanks!!