Reply To: Can you plant trees in geothermal well fields?

[Steve Mercer]

Absolutely NOT! Unless you are taping in to geology where the earth’s crust is thin and hot water is close to the surface like in Yosemite. Most Geothermal wells are pumping water down into the well and the tapping into the constant ground temperature which is usually 50 degrees. That means in the summer you are pumping water that is hotter than 50 into the well and when it comes back up out of the well the water is 50 degrees. That water has to be in a thoroughly insulated pipe free of ground water or else you will lose to many BTUs and the system will be of no benefit to the HVAC system. If it is heating the ground around the pipe you are losing BTU’s that the HVac system could be using. I don’t know what part of the country you are installing this in but I would recommend installing the pipe from the building to the wells in Insuseal (http://www.insulseal.com/photos.html) or Flexsul-seal (http://www.flexsulseal.com/index.php) pipe.

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