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Ground Water Helps Heat Rural North Dakota Farm
When heating fuel prices went sky high last winter it didn't bother Don and Georgine Pollert, Litchville, North Dakota.
That's because their home is heated by an economical thermal ground water heat pump that's been saving them money for the past 20 years. Shortly after the Pollerts built their house with the h
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Ground Water Helps Heat Rural North Dakota Farm ENERGY Alternative Fuels 26-2-42 When heating fuel prices went sky high last winter it didn't bother Don and Georgine Pollert, Litchville, North Dakota.
That's because their home is heated by an economical thermal ground water heat pump that's been saving them money for the past 20 years. Shortly after the Pollerts built their house with the heat pump system incorporated into it, FARM SHOW ran a story reporting that their heat costs were less than $80 a month (Vol. 7, No. 2).
At the time they used an open system, pumping water from a well near the house, extracting heat from it, and discharging it into another well about 130 ft. away.
"That system worked well for several years," Don Pollert says. "Seven years ago, the discharge well wouldn't take water anymore. It overflowed and ran across the yard."
At that point, they redesigned the system to use a closed loop, pumping water through a series of underground pipes from four different wells to the heat pump and back again.
"The pump and heat exchanger we had wasn't able to work with a closed loop, so we had to replace them, too," he says. Cost of the switchover, including drilling the wells, was about $7,000. Unlike the open loop system, though, the closed loop system should need nothing more than minor maintenance for years to come.
He says the cost of operation for the new system is about the same as the old one. "Our electricity costs are about $2.40 a day during the heating season," he says. He has no other heating costs except maintenance on the system, which is virtually zero. There is a backup electric heat jacket to provide heat for the house in case the heat pump system shuts down, but Pollert says it's hardly been used.
"We're well satisfied with it, but for some reason we're still the only ones around here who use this for home heat. A couple of commercial/industrial buildings in the area are using heat pumps," he says.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Don Pollert, 10499 57th St. S.E., Litchville, N. Dak. 58461 (ph 701 762-4821).
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