Does anyone have suggestions for how I could go about researching if it's a good idea (better economics) to put in a common water loop for 5 new (not yet constructed) residential homes in a subdivision, all homes contiguous to each other, each about 2500 s.f., and each being highly energy efficient (SIP walls, metal roofs, foamed attics, GSHPs, ERVs, high-R insulation, CFL lamps).

Location is Houston, where it's a cooling dominated climate.  Without looking at charts, my guess is 'deep down undisturbed earth' temp is 70 degrees or more.

Example questions that come to mind include:

-> Is there any 'economy of scale' building the loop for 5 homes - i.e., can you assume that not all homes will demand full load cooling at the same time, such that you don't have to drill as many holes total?

-> Do drillers charge less if they're on site for a while digging 25 holes versus 5 holes?

-> Surely there are challenges associated with loop 'ownership,' and assuming so, what are the solutions?

-> Etc.

These and other questions that I haven't thought of yet are examples of the questions I'd like to do research to be able to answer.  I would much appreciate it if anyone can point me to source(s) that would help me get started on the research.

Many thanks!

Best regards,

Bill

The comments and suggestions here, from all of you, are very much appreciated.

My conclusions is that it's reasonable to expect some economies of scale with respect to an HVAC professional doing 5 geothermal vertical closed-loop installations that are similar in size, common equipment supplier, common material suppliers, single driller, etc.  How competitive the market is, though, that's managing current margins, will manage how much of a discount results for the increased volume of work in the same location (5 lots contiguous to each other).

My conclusion also is that it's not a winning strategy to put in a common loop.  Little possibility of economy of scale (still have to drill all of the wells), a loop problem putting multiple property owners out of commission at the same time, and ownership/responsibility challenge all appear to present significant challenge to a common loop being a winning strategy.

Thanks for the open-loop design suggestion.  This isn't a feasible design option for this location, unfortunately.

A parenthetical conclusion is that these conclusions may not hold if the volumes move from five contiguous lots to a multiple hundred lot subdivision.

A big thanks for such great helpfulness!

Best regards,

Bill