Geowell™ Technology > Well Field Design

Well Field Design

ARB/Geowell will design the well and well field to meet a client’s building load needs, footprint constraint and esthetic interests. The well heads will be buried, yet easily accessible for any subsequent maintenance.

The ideal well field design layout for Geowell is a grid pattern, shown in Figure 1 as an example for a 200 ton HVAC application, with individual row addressability/control.

While such a preferred layout is not possible in many cases, such as in tight urban areas where one is forced to seek perimeter space for wells, it is nonetheless important to appreciate the value of a balanced geothermal field design as the most cost-effective solution.

Individual wells serve a lateral supply and return line that is designed to provide equal flow from and to each well. This is a pre-fabricated stepped header (one for supply and the other for return) that is shipped to the site in joinable sections to simplify field installation and to insure “best practices”. A standard 2”-3” solenoid valve is used to direct return water to the appropriate row or rows. These rugged field valves are protected in insulated valve boxes that are accessible and can operate in variable conditions. Each row is controlled separately, or in groups, to meet part load conditions without the expense of having to operate VFDs for each well.

The balanced design insures that all wells in a row will have the same average water level independent of the initial static level of individual wells. As a result, there will be no situation in which one well will preferentially flood and another approach a condition of cavitation.

The well field design works in conjunction with the Geowell Field Controller to offer the most efficient geothermal HVAC solution.