FYI: new york ground source heat pumps

I saw a short news segment on CNBC that showed people drilling ground source heat pump wells in new york city.

They showed a tall drilling rig drilling into the sidewalk and it showed them installing metal man hole covers when they were done.

They did mention that one guy spent $140,000 for the system that heated an apartment building, so it's clearly not cheap right now, but I see drilling costs coming down with time.

Although not common elsewhere, I understand that in NYC, perhaps especially older buildings, the landlord provides the heat. SO , if you had like a 50 unit building, and were spending a small fortune on heating oil, the payback on 140 grand might be fairly short!

Bill Arden said:

They did mention that one guy spent $140,000 for the system that heated an apartment building, so it's clearly not cheap right now, but I see drilling costs coming down with time.

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Don't bet on it. Well drilling costs are very expensive. There prices are not coming down because they have a bit more work. I deal with one driller here on LI and we talk occasionally on cost of operation and the numbers are staggering. I know for sure he doesn't have an S550 in his garage

LI is mostly a big sand bar...yes, you'll find rocks, but mostly those left from the last ice age. NYC, Manhatten particularly, is mostly one huge block of schist - a very hard rock. I'd think drilling on LI would be hit or miss, more troublesome on the north shore verses the south. NYC, would probably be a pain all of the time. Doing business in that area has got to be quite expensive compared to most other areas with all of the taxes, permits, traffic, and basic cost of living.

Somebody was telling me about a documentary he saw - I didn't see it, but I did find these article - about the big new geothermal project, that an Episcopalian Seminary's putting in, in Chelsea:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/22/nyregion/22about.html?ref=nyregion
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2008/aug/11/news/chi-geothermal-energy-080811-ht
http://www.habitatmag.com/publication_content/save_the_environment_save_the_world/geothermal_energy
http://www.thevillager.com/villager_236/drillingforthermal.html

The problem in NYC, apart from the drilling costs, is all the agencies & community boards you have to get approval from. It's not mentioned in these articles, but my friend saw on TV - apparently they'd started drilling, when a pickup showed up, from yet another agency, stop-work order in hand... no wonder it's costing 15 million bucks.

I see a lot of promise for angled shallow wells run in a trench.

Around here you get sand for ~60 feet, so it would not be too hard to imagine using a machine to run a series of 50 foot deep 1-1/4 diameter wells.

That combined with being able to pull up the casing and just leaving the 1/2 inch tubing in the ground will reduce costs.

And then there is the fact that such a shallow well would not need drilling mud, nor would it have to be grouted. Just back wash with sand as the pipe is pulled.