Excavation for Geothermal Heat Pump Loop (© Magi Nams)
Brilliant sun set our dew-drenched lawn shimmering this morning. By 8 a.m., an excavator had arrived to rip up that lawn and a meadow, creating a 200-metre trench in which a heating crew installed a loop of geothermal heat pump piping. I was impressed with the excavator operator’s skill, as he managed to avoid all the flowerbeds and trees in the yard (Vilis and I had picked out the route), although there was some inevitable root damage to the elm and peach, since the trench went through the relatively narrow space between them. Hopefully, they recover.
I wrote and prepared a roast chicken supper and chocolate layer cake while an electrician rerouted wiring in the basement, the geothermal boss drilled holes through the cement of the basement wall, and the excavator dug through the front yard. Needless to say, all this created a noisy environment for creativity. I wore earplugs so I could think while working at my computer.
Now we have a broad swath of muck to deal with in the spring, but can weigh against that the knowledge that we’ve taken a huge step to reduce our carbon footprint on the earth. No more furnace oil. No more electricity-sucking dehumidifier. Less firewood for the wood stove, which will become our backup heat during power outages rather than a main source of heat. The geothermal pump will not only heat our home in the cool seasons, it will pre-heat our domestic hot water supply and aircondition (and dehumidify) our home during the heat of summer. This is another bounty of the earth, of the soil, and one that takes nothing from it.
