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Climbee schrieb:
As a layperson, it made sense to me, although I have to admit I had never heard about the idea that it "needs sun and precipitation."

A mass of earth intended to absorb heat should be rechargeable through sunlight. The soil itself transmits stored thermal energy to adjacent molecules more slowly than water percolating through it. You might not think of this right away, but it should be easy to understand.

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Climbee schrieb:
I can ask again in detail at the next meeting. As a layperson, it made sense to me, although I have to admit I have never heard the idea of "needs sun and precipitation" before.

With traditional collectors, heat reaches the ground through the sun and warm precipitation, which regenerates the soil. Therefore, building over these collectors is an absolute no-go.

I have also heard about brine pipes installed under the foundation slab, but there is far less experience with this method. Even searching for information on it is not straightforward. The general consensus is roughly:
Quite risky
Less efficient than traditional ground collectors
It can work, but it can also fail

In addition, the foundation slab needs to be better insulated because heat is extracted from the ground.

As I understand it, the key issue is that the floor is warmed again during the hot summer months. In some cases, this works so well that some have done without underfloor heating in the basement, and the floor is still comfortably warm. That was too risky for us, so we will have underfloor heating in the basement as well, except for the freezer and storage areas.

The system will work somehow, but its efficiency will be very poor compared to other deep or surface collectors, since it receives much less energy input (neither from rain nor sunlight); plus, it is installed in sand... the worst possible heat extraction performance... modern pipes are sturdy enough that they do not need to be installed in sand to improve heat extraction.

By the way, you don’t need to worry about deep-rooted plants; that’s at most a marketing argument from the guy promoting pipes under the slab... With a surface collector using PE-RC pipes, you can plant whatever you want—the pipes will not be damaged by roots.

Due to limited space, a surface system would not have been possible for us, only deep drilling. We did not want that. Efficiency should be good... I will definitely ask again for detailed information on how exactly it works.

Sounds definitely exciting. It seems to be quite an unusual case. Please keep us updated.