Tomorrow we start with the installation of our geothermal system. This is mostly the mundane part where we rough in the vents, just as we would with a standard system. The magic comes when we plumb in the heat pump.

And speaking of magic, we need to make ~5,000 gallons of water per day disappear. We were planning to pump it into the Lake (see my previous post) and I believe that our DEC permit application is wending its way through the hallowed halls, but we are considering an alternate idea.

French Drain

Our soil is very porous. During our flow test we pumped 10 gallons per minute from our well into our septic system (i.e.  600 gallons per hour) for 30 straight hours giving us a total of 18,000 gallons with no visible impact to the soil. So it looks like we should be good to deposit 5,000 gallons per day (when the system is running) without any problems.

So, we’re looking at installing a French drain leading from our basement down toward the lake but not actually exiting into the lake. This would eliminate the need for a DEC permit. The main question is whether the ground will absorb that much water.

It appears that it will from our flow test, but that is the discussion with our contractor tomorrow.