Task: Drilling – first complete borehole
The first ground loop was installed at 10:30am by lead driller Shaun Crozier and his team from GeoDrill.
Due to the potential coal seams below 120m we are water drilling to lessen the chance of combustion. This method is our preferred drilling technique anyway as it is far cleaner and more controllable than alternatives. Pumping the water down the hole, the fluid brings the spoil back up and utilises mud puppies which sieve the spoil from the water and allow it to be re-used.
Due to the potential coal seam, special permissions were sought and granted by the UK Coal Authority. In order to monitor the presence of coal and associated gasses, all drilling personnel have gas meters on their person. Once the drilling probe gets to a depth of 100m, a special gas meter probe is positioned over the borehole for every 3m to verify no gas has been released.
We are on track for two boreholes to have been completed with ground loops installed and grouted by the end of play today.
Project in a nutshell
- Design and install communal ground source heat pump systems into two blocks of three-storey flats
- Drill 40 boreholes to an average depth of 140m
- Manifold the boreholes to 12 individual ground arrays
- Trench back to the 60 flats
- Remove old inefficient night store heaters and hot water cylinder
- Replace with a Kensa Shoebox 6kW, a highly efficient hot water cylinder and a wet radiator system
- Install thermostatic and time controls to allow total control for residents with individual heat requirements
Read more about the background to this project here: https://www.kensacontracting.com/live-retrofit-project-blog-follow-trent-doves-latest-gshp-scheme/
