ᐅ Trench collector for brine heat pumps

No, of course not, I was referring to Alex’s statement.
A collector can be even cheaper.

The collector is more affordable; you can get one for 3,000 to 5,000 euros. In Eastern Europe, it’s even less. You need the planning (which can possibly be obtained via forums and their tools, as already mentioned), an excavator, and someone to operate it. The brine pipe is available online, and anyone can install the loops. However, you obviously have to want to do it yourself. It wouldn’t be my choice (0.0% personal labor on construction).

The difficult part is finding a company that installs the collector. These are still quite rare. Drilling services are available almost everywhere. It is important to have the correct sizing; otherwise, you’ll drill too much, which is expensive. The heating load calculation is the foundation. For example, in North Rhine-Westphalia, the Geological Service can provide the heat extraction capacity for a small fee to determine the necessary drilling depth. One drilling is better than multiple ones; the 100-meter (330 feet) limit is more of a myth—practically, it’s not a problem to drill deeper, usually, it’s just a matter of paperwork. The drilling company takes care of that.

I would at least check whether this option is feasible. I claim that in many cases, an air-to-water heat pump (LWWP) could be avoided because a brine-to-water heat pump is basically the same price after subsidies. The obstacle is the general contractors who don’t want to deal with that.

That's really how it is, they simply don’t want to, or always say that it’s too expensive. Mine is now surprised that it is so affordable.

winnetou78 schrieb:
That’s really the case, they just don’t want to, or they always say it’s too expensive. Mine is now surprised that it’s actually so affordable.

What do you think is the motivation behind not wanting to go for it? It probably isn’t because the customer is threatening to cancel the contract, right?

What are the fundamental issues that argue against ground source heat pumps in principle?

Our planner once mentioned that the soil’s regeneration capacity must not be overlooked, and that with shallow collectors close to the surface, the vegetation above can be a critical factor. In other forums, you also sometimes read about problems with silting or sedimentation related to deep drilling.

Just one more thought on trench collectors and why they’re not an option for me, even though I find the concept basically interesting:

Warranty claims: especially for hot water and heating, I want a contact person who knows and has installed the system in case of a malfunction. I really don’t want to have to argue about what was (self-)installed if something goes wrong… and that argument will come up sooner or later if troubleshooting takes longer.

That “comfort” / this security is easily worth the additional cost to me compared to installing a trench collector myself. Or are there already companies driving the big revolution of trench collectors and offering solutions?

They simply don’t want to deviate from their usual approach. Here, people build with gas; if you’re a bit unconventional, you use an air-source heat pump. Everything else is more expensive nonsense. The companies just aren’t familiar with those options and have no interest in dealing with them. Right now, customers are lining up, and they serve the ones with the “standard” requests.

winnetou78 schrieb:
They simply don’t want to deviate from their usual approach. Here, people build with gas heating; if you’re a bit more unconventional, you use an air-source heat pump. Everything else is just more expensive nonsense.

Okay, I can understand that in the case of a general contractor or construction management setup, but what about when contracting individually?

If someone isn’t interested, they just won’t submit a bid. It’s unfortunate if you don’t receive any offers.

On the other hand, if uncertainty is the reason for a refusal, I think that’s reasonable. Why would someone want to try something they’re not familiar with and then still have to provide a warranty on it?

As a client, would I want to be treated like a test subject?

It’s a tricky situation, because that way no (innovation) progress is made, but on the other hand it’s also understandable if a builder doesn’t want to take that risk, right?