3 ms·

Do you know if there are any effects on groundwater? Like polution, mixing of different layers?

• DannyBee 9y ago
  There are two types of systems: closed loop and open loop. Most systems are closed loop. The only place the pipe is open to is the inlet of the system, and the outlet of the system. They stick u shaped pipes in the holes So they do something like: outlet | | manifold inlet in the ground | a bunch of pipes formed into U's, stuck in very deep vertical holes filled with thermal grout | | manifold outlet in the ground | | inlet The manifolds look like this: https://www.geohydrosupply.com/index.php/fittings/socket-fusion-fittings/manifolds/sph64p5.html https://www.geohydrosupply.com/index.php/fittings/socket-fus... If it's done in series, each u-bend connects to a set of two outlets on that manifold. If it's done in parallel, each u-bend connects to a single outlet on each of two manifolds, one in, one out. Here's a drawing: https://blog.heatspring.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/parallel_vs_series.jpg https://blog.heatspring.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/paral... If you can imagine a really huge refrigerant loop, that's what they are, with water+glycol as the refrigerant going through the pipes. But the water only moves in this loop, it's never going into the ground, etc. Open loop systems exist, and those are the ones where they are sucking something in one pipe, and pushing it out the other. Sometimes this is done in a pond, sometimes a well, etc. What happens depends a lot of the design (horizontal, vertical, etc). Open loops are pretty uncommon.