2015 12 31 GSHP wells tied together..

2015 12 31 GSHP wells tied together..

All of these photos show the 12 ground source heat pump wells being tied together.  This will make one very long (over 7200 feet) run of tubing that will carry heat energy to/from the house and the earth.  The Wikipedia article on GSHP is good.

2015 12 30 More excavation, moving further west ..

2015 12 30

More excavation, moving further west in the house profile.

First two are looking northwest at the contemporary house up the hill.  This will be the "studio" end of the house, although there won't really be any views in this direction.

Looking north at the contemporary about 1/2 mile away.

Looking northeast from southwest corner of house, across the house outline.

2015 12 28 Excavation, further west, gloomy weather ..

2015 12 28

More excavation, further west in the house footprint.   First two are looking more or less south.

Looking more or less north, I'm not sure in the low clouds!

Looking north out the drive.

2015 12 23 Weather clears, house footprint ..

2015 12 23

The weather has cleared, and enough excavation has been done that a good part of the house profile can be seen.  

The first photo is looking ENE.  The graded area is the bottom of the crawlspace under the house.  The pickup truck is sitting about where the east end of the deck will be.

Next photo also looking opposite direction, WSW.  Deeper excavation is for utility room at east end of the house.

Also looking WSW, this is taken in what will be about the center of the main living area.

Next three photos are of the trenching that will contain the GSHP pipes that run down and back up the deep drill holes that were made a couple of weeks ago.

Last photo is of drive that will lead to the house .. temporary rough gravel for now.

2015 12 21 Weather moves in, GSHP trenching ..

Photos taken 2015 12 21.  The smaller backhoe is working on the trenching that will connect the ground source heat pump bores holes, and connect them all to the house.  The larger machine is working on the house footprint.  The weather has turned, rain, wind, some snow.

2015 12 19 More ..

Photos taken 2015 12 19 .. In the first the backhoe is being fitted with a hammer.  The site is quite rocky.  Second shows coarse gravel on temporary drive, third looking WNW..

2015 12 16 More ..

(2015 12 23)

Photos taken 2015 12 16.  First two are of the main living space, more or less in the center of the house footprint.   Third is looking to the northeast, out the drive.

2015 12 15 More earth moving ..

From 2015 12 15 .. More excavation.  First photo looking ESE, bucket of backhoe is about where east end of deck will be, if I am interpreting the photo correctly.  Second photo looking more or less north, at east end of house.  Third photo looking WNW.   End of excavation is about mid point of house.

2015 12 08 Almost Christmas, catching up on posting, excavation continues..

(2015 12 23)

I have been poor at posting over the last couple of weeks, will get current over the next day or two.  All of the activity over the last two weeks has been excavation and work related to the ground source heat pump.  The next photo is taken from the south east end of the house looking more or less north.

These were all taken 2015 12 08.



Roughly the same location, looking more west - northwest:



Looking east:

2015 12 11 Excavation continues in the snow .. 

2015 12 04 Digging and drilling ..

Another week of ground source heat pump drilling, now finished, and various excavation tasks.

The outline of the house is visible in the excavation, and the top foot or two of softer earth/rock has been removed.  

Here are a few photos of the drilling for the heat pump:

The black tubing goes into the hole and carries the water used to transfer heat.

They get it in the ground by attaching it to a long slender weight which is lowered into the hole.

Here’s the stuff in case any of you are really interested in the material .. 

This is the last one going into the ground.  You can see the long weight being held by one of the drillers.

Otherwise all that went on was more earth/rock screening, and then finally starting to dig to the actual foundation depth.

First pic is taken from about where I think the kitchen will be.  This ought to be the view looking through the main living space to the southeast.  (Small hut is builder’s.)

East end of house .. 

Lots of this, earth moving and screening .. I think the backhoe is siting more or less where my computer chair will be.

And they finally started to dig to foundation depth.  Soft rock, but hard enough to warrant the hammer.

Very clear day after storm goes through.  50-60 MPH winds the day before as the storm came in, but almost no rain.  A foot of very wet snow 30 miles west in Truckee.

The rest of December will likely be taken with excavation.  A lot of material will be moved.

2015 11 30 Digging and Drilling ..

Here are a few snaps from Nov 30 at the house site.  

The drilling is for the ground source heat pump.  There will be 12 300’ holes.  The driller is getting about 1 per day done.  The last shot shows the tubing loop that goes in each hole.  The other work is excavation for the foundation and crawlspace under the house.  The three conferring over plans are the general contractor (dark knit cap), civil engineer (baseball cap) and excavating subcontractor (mostly hidden)

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