The house, plot and ground

The house

In order to create an optimally sized heat pump solution , it is important that the intended supplier receives answers to the following questions:

• One or two floor house, cellar, attic?
• Square metre area?
• Special conditions? For example, a studio room with a very high ceiling.
• Extension plans? In which case you must make sure that any installation does not block a future extension. If you have a swimming pool – or plans for one – you can of course also heat that using a heat pump.

The plot and ground

How large is your plot?

If you want a heat pump solution based on ground source heating the plot needs to be big enough for the long hose to be positioned in the ground in the right way.

What are the ground conditions?
The nature of the rock shelf and the earth depth (distance to rock) can affect the price of the drilling.

What is the accessibility? Is it easy to access for drilling? If you are having an air heat pump – make sure that there is a suitable place for the outdoor section of the air heat pump outside the house.

Have any neighbours drilled bore holes previously?
If any house in the neighbourhood has rock heating – or if more than one bore hole is needed – the distance between the bore holes must be approximately twenty metres. This prevents the risk of them negatively affecting each other. If several houses have rock heat close together, the proximity of the bore holes is compensated for by drilling deeper.

How deep must one drill?

What determines the depth of the bore hole is the size of the heat pump (output), the energy and output requirement of the house, the mineral composition of the rock shelf (heat conducting properties) and the ground water flow (gives better heat exchange than a dry bore hole). Speculation of bore depth which is not based on the facts is just chance.