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We don’t have a smart home, and can’t do much more to insulate it: parts are 200 years old, and the walls are a combination of thick rubble-filled stone and more recent block-work without continuous cavities. Currently we have a gas boiler for heating. On a hillside without suitable lawn etc for ground source heat pump. But we DO have a well. Not sure of the exact depth, but between 5 and 10 metres, with water surface about 3-4 metres below ground level. We don’t use the water for anything as we suspect heavy metal contamination from nearby lead mines. Is there any way this could be incorporated usefully in a ground-source heat pump? 

I think piping can be laid in coils just a metre or so beneath a lawn, or a larger pipe can be inserted into a drill hole vertically.  Your well might be suitable.  You need an expert to come and advise.

 

The water is sealed in the heat pump pipework and cross contamination wouldn’t be an issue .

I assume you mean a water source heat pump with coils in the well? You'll extract the heat out of the water in the well very quickly and the system will stop working.

Thanks both for your answers. Yes, the second one is what I’m afraid of - that the heat in the well water could be extracted much faster than heat would be exchanged between the water and the surrounding subsoil, so it would rapidly lose efficiency. Right now, our home heating is dependent on a standard gas boiler (not a combi) with a small though efficient woodburning stove in just one room: although that is in the middle of the house, transfer of heat around the house is not very efficient. The stove is actually multi-fuel, and was extremely good when (15-25 years ago) we also used anthracite, which would keep it going overnight. When burning wood, this is not possible. I really want to go green, but traditional housebuilding methods don’t make it easy.

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