WorldWide Drilling Resource

43 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® NOVEMBER 2013 TWISTER Lowers Costs and Increases Efficiency Adapted from a PRWeb Press Release Cost and loop drilling space are two major hurdles for residential or commer- cial geothermal heating, cooling, and ventilation (HVAC) installation. A twist- ed pipe system known as TWISTER™ (twisted pipe - patent pending), created for vertical bore heat exchanger tech- nology, can lower costs and increase efficiency by allowing concurrent instal- lation of four loops in a single vertical bore. TWISTER also takes greater advantage of heat transfer and heat capacity of the soil. This increased effi- ciency means less cost for residential or commercial geothermal installation. TWISTER’s four loops in a single bore can also reduce the depth of ver- tical boreholes, which is helpful in more densely populated areas. For example, a geothermal installation calling for 10 kilowatts of thermal capacity could require three 300-foot vertical boreholes. Drilling boreholes makes up a substantial portion of job costs for any geothermal job. Reducing these costs means lower costs for contractors which they can pass on to consumers. Agreenability, the Bergen County, New Jersey, firm and innovator of TWISTER has chosen Green Equipment Options, Inc., a geothermal wholesaler in northern California, to be their west coast distributor. Attacking cost and space issues associated with geother- mal installations and components for geothermal heat pumps is their main focus. TWISTER can potentially reduce drilling costs by as much as 30%; and the lower the installation costs, the faster the payback. Companies such as Perfection Contracting of New Jersey, already swear by TWISTER for HVAC Photo of TWISTER™ courtesy of agreenability.com installation. At a nonresidence site in Paramus, New Jersey, Perfection was able to install a 5-ton geothermal sys- tem retrofit where the crew drilled only two 300-foot bores. Development of TWISTER was con- ducted over 2½ years. Studies were done in a borehole test to evaluate and compare thermal responses of the TWISTER design and a standard 1¼- inch high-density polyethylene (HDPE) single-loop well completion. TWISTER uses ¾-inch ASTM D3035/D3350 cell classification 445574C SDR 11 or 13.5 HDPE (International Ground Source Heat Pump Association requirement) pipe spirally wound around a central 2-inch pipe used to guide the tremie pipe. It is delivered on reels or in coils, and factory prepared u-bend fit- tings mean twisted pipe heat exchang- ers can be slipped down the hole like a conventional u-bend loop. As a result, no extra fieldwork is required to install twisted pipe systems. ,0&1.0 !64((6 !# 1: > ( $45 19$ > $: 999 *752(&+ &1/ "+( (1 !9,0* ,5 6+( /156 8(45$6,.( 64$&- /1706(' 4 ,* ,0 6+( *(16+(4/$ . /$4-(6 "+( 4 ,* ,5 /1706(' 10 $ 674 4(6 56;.( 6 4$&- 5;56(/ "+( /$0(78(4$%,.,6; 1) 6+( 64$&- /1706(' 6744(6 56;.( 4,* $..195 '4,..,0* ,0 &10),0(' 52$&(5 9,6+176 .($8,0* $ +($8; )11624,06 " + ( 7 5 ( & + ( $ 5 ; 5 ( 6 56$%,.,<(45 $0' $,4 +$//(4 &$2$%,.,6,(5 /$-( '4,..,0* ,0 70(8(0 6(44$,0 $0' %('41&- 01 241%.(/ "+( 6744(6 56;.( 64$&- /1706,0* 5;56(/ $..195 6+( 4,* 61 '4,.. /7.6,2.( +1.(5 ,0 $ &,4&7/)(4(0&( 76,.,<,0* ,65 = 416$6,10 9,6+176 /18,0* 6+( 64$&-5 "+( (1 !9,0* ,5 $ )$56 &.($0 $0' ()),&,(06 /($05 1) &1/2.(6 ,0* *(16+(4/$. $0' &14( '4, . . ,0* 12(4$6,10 4(37,4(/(065 ? "7%( !6;.( $56 "91 #$; 4155 "12+($' !.,'( "12+($' )6 .%5 )6 .%5 ;'4$7.,& 0'(:,0* $4175(. (/16( 2(4$6,0* )14 "4$8(. 7561/,<,0* 16+(4 126,105 $8$,.$%.( "744(6 56;.( 64$&- = 416$6,10 $0' *4170' 25, ! ,4 1/24(5514 7561/ 7,.6 2(4$614 !6$6,10 : 72.(: 7' 7/2 ! )6 !641-( 7..'190 .%5 7..%$&- .%5