We’ve found it useful to focus on both articles that will help companies with their sales and marketing AND design and installation. A few weeks ago, I shared a piece – thanks to Ryan Carda – on geothermal flow path analysis for ground loop design that came from a discussion forum from our advanced geothermal design course.  My plan is to share more technical discussions that are happening within the course. If you are installing or designing geothermal projects, these articles will be useful to you if you never take the training. This is my goal.

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Here are a few tips on on vertical and slinky bore design.

Vertical Bore Design

1)      The target (optimum) flow rate versus pipe size is:

2.8 – 3.2 gpm per loop for ¾” loops
4 – 6 gpm per loop for 1” loops
5 – 9 gpm per loop for 1.25” loops

Staying within those flow ranges per loop will keep you well below the maximum recommended flow rate for head loss (4 ft per 100’ of pipe length, Figure 5.4) and above the minimum flow rate required for turbulent flow.  For the vertically-bored design, I recommend using two loops for 6 gpm per loop with 1.25” pipe.

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