Geowell™ Technology > Thermal Testing/Analysis and Report
Thermal Testing
How can you spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on an energy savings project without first doing some critical measurements to understand how much capital expense you are facing? The drilling and thermal measurement of a test well, a well that will be utilized as part of the overall solution, is absolutely imperative, for without this, a designer is just guessing as to how many wells will be needed, which directly affects your bottom-line.
ARB/Geowell believes that the cost of this testing should be no more than 5% of the overall project. By committing to this philosophy, it places a premium on smart, knowledge-driven, design rather than rule of thumb approaches.
What’s involved in thermal testing? After the well is drilled, ARB/Geowell will deploy its thermal rig which consists of a heat source, that simulates building heat load, and temperature and flow sensors to measure the time response of the well, captured over hours and days by its own data acquisition system. From this, one measures the following three critical properties of the rock surrounding the bore hole:
- K - “effective” thermal conductivity (BTUH/ftºF or W/mºC)
- α - thermal diffusivity (sqf/day or m2/day)
- τ - thermal decay or relaxation time (hrs).
Without this information, the designer is just guessing at your expense.
ARB/Geowell has performed numerous thermal tests for a range of clients, including schools, building owners and government facility managers. Our reports have been exemplary of how best to communicate scientific information to decision makers. Give us a try.