DO NOT BUY A SYSTEM from TerraSource AKA www.geothermaldiy.com if you actually want to heat/cool your house.  Their manifold is a nice piece of art on my basement wall.  I got suckered into installing a system 2 years ago and ended up having wells drilled.  The 3/4" pex (or something similar) piping lasted maybe 6 months before developing leaks.  Their manifold has "makeup water" piped in from the house and conveniently they never tell you to shut off the water in the installation instructions.  It took me months to figure out that the loops had developed leaks and at that point there was no antifreeze left in the system, so the compressors were locking out.  They also told me I could hook up 2 heatpumps in parallel without any backflow prevention with the one pump pack on their manifold doing all the circulating.  I barely had enough flow to support either heat pump when the loops weren't leaking.  Once they developed leaks I was done.  I was young and naive, so it's my bad, but please don't make the same mistake.

I'm still using the waterfurnace heatpumps (6 ton in basement, 4 ton in attic), but everything else had to be done after the fact.  3 350 ft wells with 2 separate pump packs and backflow preventers.  System works great now that none of the original Terrasource equipment is being used. 

Also have a sweet 10.9 KW Solar system on the roof that provides most of the juice for the system.

I'm happy to answer specific questions if you have any.

Three wells at 350' (2100' of pipe) seems a bit light for a 10 ton system. Our "norm" for a ten ton system would be ten wells at 150' (3000' of pipe).

Bergy

I'm in New England and got numerous quotes this time around.  The system is definitely sized right.  The pipe diameter is huge.  Can't remember the exact dimension.

Apparently I typed a 6 instead of a 5.  It's 5 tons in the basement and 4 tons in the attic.  The original specs from TerraSource called for 8 750' slinky loops at 6+ feet horizontally.  I replaced those non-functioning loops with the 3 350' wells.  I was told by all the installers up here that 300-350' wells are more common in New England as opposed to other areas where more not-so-deep wells are used.  I can't remember the exact reason, but it was a cost thing.

singfly,

welcome and thanks for the words of caution.

Hopefully others can avoid the trap.

Did it work in the 6 months before the leaks began? What kind of tubing (material and manufacturer) was it Were the leaks at joints?

Did the system run fine before the leaks developed?  I'm wondering if the loop material was subsituted with something more durible how the system hold up in the long run.  Who manufactured the heat pump? Is it different manufacturer with another label slapped on the side of the unit?

  

Totally understand, and I know exactly why.

Because I was the inventor, patent holder and developer of the system.

only the owner knows who this is, but I find it hilarious, however I also understand it’s at your expense.

The system will never be improved or corrected because he has no clue what to do.

That’s what happens when the only person who knows the engineering, gets the patents, and develops the software for it, leaves, then the business brains decide to cut costs and increase profit. What he did not know was The algorithms where changed when I left.

Best of luck, sorry to all, however greed won the company, and I moved on.

Take care