HVAC contractors, mechanical engineers, architects, developers, and others involved in geothermal heat pump installations should evaluate the qualifications of drilling contractors to protect groundwater and optimize heat pump system operation.
As much as 50% of the total geothermal heat pump market involves the use of vertical borehole subsystems. There are several different configurations of geothermal heat pump system installations involving vertical earth drilling:
* Open loop: single well for water withdrawal, water returned to a surface source
* Open loop: single well for water withdrawal, water returned to a second well
* Standing column: single well for water withdrawal and water return
* Closed loop: vertical borehole
* Direct exchange: vertical boreholes using concentric pipe systems.
A motivation for NGWA promoting these questions and the need to HVAC contractors, mechanical engineers, etc., is to direct them to NGWA-member or NGWA-certified contractors to do the drilling for geothermal heat pump installations. To find drilling contractors, including those who work on geothermal heat pump installations, use
