In April 2024 Dandelion completed a test bore for a customer planning a large geothermal installation in Riverhead, NY. Test bores are done to understand what the drilling conditions are like at a particular location, including factors such as geology, water production, the presence of reactive clay, or any other factors that could require advanced planning ahead of the larger installation and impact the expected cost of the project. It is typical to do one test bore per every 100 tons projected for the final installation. Given this scale of the planned Riverhead project, Dandelion installed three test bores to 700’ depth. In doing so, among other things, Dandelion was able to determine that drilling to 700’ depth would not be an issue.
Dandelion also used the test bores to conduct Formation Thermal Conductivity (FTC) testing. FTC testing measures the thermal response of the geology at the jobsite so when the larger borefield is designed the engineers designing it know how many bores they will need to exchange a certain amount of heat. This allows them to size the borefield correctly. FTC tests are done by cycling water that is heated at a constant rate through a ground loop for 48 hours and measuring the thermal response at a regular interval.
