I expressed surprise in an older post at the reported number of boreholes drilled for the geothermal system at the newly remodeled governor's mansion here in Texas. Various sources reported between 40 to 53 boreholes between 300 to 350 feet deep.
I sent a note to the contractor that put in the system, Redding Linden Burr, Inc., who forwarded my email to the Bob Bullock History Museum. A nice fellow there responded that the guv's system has 45 wells, each 350 feet deep, spaced 20 feet on center. The system also has a fluid cooler to remove additional heat during the winter because of our unbalanced heating and cooling loads (smart).
That nice fellow noted that number of wells per square foot is higher than a modern house because of the uninsulated masonry walls, the 17-foot tall ceilings on the first floor and 13-foot tall ceilings on the second floor, and the large groups the mansion often hosts.
In that older post, I speculated that only the debbil would need a house with a 45-ton cooling system (the debbil and that dude in "Hands On a Hard Body" who bought a Wal-Mart class AC for his doublewide). Turns out it's only one cool cat...
So, basically, that $10k we (as taxpayers) were paying in rent during the renovation is now going to utilities. I can't imagine what the electric bill must have been before the geothermal and solar panels.
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