Now that all the pipework has been installed, the screed is going to be laid next Tuesday. Until this point, the house is out-of-bounds otherwise the pipeworks may get damaged.
So we are going to take the opportunity to install the ground loops in the top field. There is around 1533m of plastic pipe to bury in the ground – about 1 meter deep. If we have got our calculations right, this means digging up about 1,100 sq m of the top field. The ground loops are a fundamental part of the ground source heat pump. This will extract the heat out of the ground and provide all of the heating and hot water for the property.
The pipes need to be installed as loops where the pipes are around one meter deep and one metre apart. Rather than digging trenches we are going to remove all of the topsoil and subsoil from the field. We will then install the ground loops and replace the subsoil and topsoil. We will do it in sections. By installing the ground loops at this time of the year, there is half a chance that the grass will re-establish before the winter sets in.
We order a 30 ton excavator, but unfortunately we couldn’t get it up the road to the farm. Our plan B is this 8 ton ecavator. It is smaller and will take longer to move the soil, but at least we can get started on Monday.
This carries a 10 tonne load and should make quick work of moving the soil for the ground loops.