Gopher Problem !??

So we had not been out to the land and house project for several days, ... when we arrived to see how the building progress was going we were shocked to see what appeared to be the invasion by some type of prehistoric sized gopher! To our surprise there was a five foot high mound of dirt all the way across the field!




On closer inspection we realized that it was really the beginning of the trench for the closed loop of the geothermal heat pump system we will be using for our main heating and cooling system for the house.

At the bottom of this 6-7 foot deep trench will run x2 ~ 2 inch diameter, 1000 feet long loops of polyethylene pipes in which an eco- friendly antifreeze like liquid will be circulated underground from the house through this loop to extract heat from the rather constant 55-60 degree earth at this depth. In the summer it will use this cool temperature for AC purposes. The actual heat pump unit including the blower is smaller then a regular sized refrigerator, and supposedly as loud as said refrigerator when operating. It is touted to be one of the most energy efficient ways to heat and cool. Coupled with our passive solar design, and hopefully well sealed and insulated housing envelope, it should mean minimal usage of fossil fuels in the years to come. Unlike our current rental house which just left us with a $500/ December natural gas bill! Which might be "OK" had we actually had a comfortably warm house, but that certainly was not the case.

The house is coming along, last week saw that the siding was mostly completed. This is not the color the house will be, but just that of the siding itself.

We are hoping to fix up a couple issues this week, have the HVAC install completed, and maybe electrical wiring started. If all goes well we may have the garage shed and barn wired for electricity as well by the same electrician . That is the quick update for the week.