Does anybody know the policy regarding installing Geothermal energy plants in your backyard in Canberra?

James-T-Kirk said :

OK

Drilling was started a while ago, and I am at about 130 feet. The neighbors are being really good about it – no serious impediments, but at about 6 feet I could a cable… The phone still works, and the lights are on, so who cares!

I need to get more pipe to drill with…..

What sort of system you planning or running? Water or air or high pressure/high temp liquid salt or what?

OK

Drilling was started a while ago, and I am at about 130 feet. The neighbors are being really good about it – no serious impediments, but at about 6 feet I could a cable… The phone still works, and the lights are on, so who cares!

I need to get more pipe to drill with…..

Hey Captain Kirk,

I was reading through some online news when I found this article today.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/new-yorker-mark-suppes-found-with-nuclear-reactor-in-brooklyn-warehouse/story-e6frf7lf-1225883537318

Not sure about the legality issues in Australia but apparently in the US it’s fine.

@UrbanAdventure

Have you tried to ship a laptop battery lately? As far as freight carriers are concerned, it would be far easier to declare it as a nuclear powerplant.

Gerry-Built said :

I think there would be some serious concerns about a backyard deep geothermal system in suburban Canberra…

Care to elaborate?

I don’t see any issues at all with a geothermal system. The bores are only about 150mm in diameter, pipes are inserted and then the bores are backfilled. There’s nothing to collapse, there’s nothing to trip on, there’s no unsightly plant equipment (can and should be inside the house).

In the systems that I have seen, the pipes usually carry a liquid (as opposed to air as mentioned in the Gleneagles house), which is then circulated to a heat exchanger for storage or transferal to other mediums (heating air for example). A good example of this is http://www.ourcoolhouse.com/phase3.htm

GHE is really best applied to a newly built house rather than trying to retrofit it to an existing residence. Even adding it to an extension, you aren’t taking advantage of the amount of free heating/cooling at your disposal.

I would think that the guvmnt would be quite receptive to a sensible plan to tap into geothermal energy via a drill hole. It would probably involve a mining licence with safeguards to ensure you are only extracting geothermal heat and aren’t putting in a sneaky bore or looking for mineral riches.

AGSO and Dept of Climate Change and whatever bit of the ACT guvmnt is responsible for energy targets would be a better place than this rowdy rabble to get information.

Your own engery free from Government taxes.. LMFAO..
Na No chance, simply because someone needs you to pay for their kids.

My NZ-based father has a plan involving a giant pile of compost to heat his glasshouse and grow pineapples if this whole global warming shindig doesn’t deliver the necessary temps. Giant pile of compost, run water pipes through it. Do you even need a DA for a compost heap?

If you want a simple heat source you can go nuclear. The small nuclear heat generators for sale these days are a lot simpler and less hazardous than the glow in the dark Chernobyal or Windscale type reactors. They come off the shelf, fit into most typical ute trays and you just bury them in you back yard, pump water in one pipe and draw hot water out the other pipe. The water never reaches boiling temperature from what I’ve read so it can’t boil off the water and go super critical. Just what you need for heating your swimming pool during winter or a small village of 700 people in Alaska.

Get Googling the Toshiba 4S reactor. Oh, yeah, when you import it, tell them it’s a laptop battery. I mean sure it is big, but it is made by Toshiba so Customs will buy that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshiba_4S
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_VyTCyizqrHs/SjgRjST_zaI/AAAAAAAAEAM/pEtNK32cuyU/s400/iris335mwe.jpg

Err… :s/Thumper/cranky/