Geothermal

[dan_b]

Thought this was an interesting podcast on what's going on in the world of geothermal.
Has got me thinking as to why more isn't being made of its potential, which seems to be a lot bigger than I ever realised - enabled in the main by advances in drilling technologies in the oil and gas industry.

[Stinsy]

Thought this was an interesting podcast on what's going on in the world of geothermal.
Has got me thinking as to why more isn't being made of its potential, which seems to be a lot bigger than I ever realised - enabled in the main by advances in drilling technologies in the oil and gas industry.

I don't see why every new-build housing estate cannot come with a borehole. You could then pump the water round the UFH in every house.

You can get to 35℃ somewhere between 500-1000m underground, it'd cost £50-100k to drill the borehole. Think about a housing development of 250 houses. Even taking the upper cost of £100k and factoring in another £100k for pipework, pumps, etc., you're only looking at £800 per house. So even stevens with a gas boiler. Except that you'd have decades and decades of free heat!

[dan_b]

Exactly.
Houses on large developments built now with gas boilers when they could all be heated with subsurface geothermal- aka ground source heat pumps

[Mart]

I don't see why every new-build housing estate cannot come with a borehole. You could then pump the water round the UFH in every house.

You can get to 35℃ somewhere between 500-1000m underground, it'd cost £50-100k to drill the borehole. Think about a housing development of 250 houses. Even taking the upper cost of £100k and factoring in another £100k for pipework, pumps, etc., you're only looking at £800 per house. So even stevens with a gas boiler. Except that you'd have decades and decades of free heat!

Totally agree. District heat networks are not new, so something like you describe should be possible.

Not the same I appreciate, but a receptionist I used to chat too, who lives on a new housing estate talked me through the home package they have. It included PV, a small battery, and GSHP, but the heat pumps share one vertical borehole for each two properties. I assume it's a 'normal' depth, so not benefitting from geothermal energy, but still a great example of what is possible, I think.

And from there, why not one borehole between 4, or 8, or 16 ....... sized accordingly. And for these larger drilling projects (as you suggest) why not go deeper (say 100m+) and start to utilise geothermal.

[greentangerine]

Kenda did a retrofitted GSHP in London.

https://kensa.co.uk/social-housing/case ... n-retrofit

[Stinsy]

I don't see why every new-build housing estate cannot come with a borehole. You could then pump the water round the UFH in every house.

You can get to 35℃ somewhere between 500-1000m underground, it'd cost £50-100k to drill the borehole. Think about a housing development of 250 houses. Even taking the upper cost of £100k and factoring in another £100k for pipework, pumps, etc., you're only looking at £800 per house. So even stevens with a gas boiler. Except that you'd have decades and decades of free heat!

Totally agree. District heat networks are not new, so something like you describe should be possible.

Not the same I appreciate, but a receptionist I used to chat too, who lives on a new housing estate talked me through the home package they have. It included PV, a small battery, and GSHP, but the heat pumps share one vertical borehole for each two properties. I assume it's a 'normal' depth, so not benefitting from geothermal energy, but still a great example of what is possible, I think.

And from there, why not one borehole between 4, or 8, or 16 ....... sized accordingly. And for these larger drilling projects (as you suggest) why not go deeper (say 100m+) and start to utilise geothermal.

Drove past a new-build estate the other day:




Absolutely pitiful effort! 2 panels per house. Talk about doing the absolut minimum. And it is likely those two panels allowed the developer to skimp on some insulation elsewhere.

I recently saw a row of terraced new-build properties. The end ones had 4 panels, the middle ones had 2. I guess the extra panels were to offset the additional heatloss from the end houses...

[Oliver90owner]

It looks like they saved fitting roofing tiles under those panels, too?

[resybaby]

All of the newbuilds towards the Gannal estuary in Newquay are like that, fitted with minimal 'pointless' low numbers of panels.
Its utterly disgraceful, given the average amount of just roof tiles replaced by each panel would cost more than any extra panel themselves.
Gets me cross each time i go past the estate.

[dan_b]

Apparently the cost of built-in solar panels is now cheaper than the equivalent area of tiles on a new build.

So these developers aren’t even saving themselves money by doing this nonsense anymore

[ecogeorge]

All of the newbuilds towards the Gannal estuary in Newquay are like that, fitted with minimal 'pointless' low numbers of panels.
Its utterly disgraceful, given the average amount of just roof tiles replaced by each panel would cost more than any extra panel themselves.
Gets me cross each time i go past the estate.

Annoys me too - new build near Gloucester rettro fitted with rails and panels ........why on earth not fill the roof with intergrated panels........