The Hole

We are about to install geothermal heating.

I imagine there are quite a few possible technical problems installing geothermal heating. But I did not realize that it would be such a trying to my patience to get a drill permit.

In order to bore for geothermal heating, a boring permit is required. Our town together with two neighboring towns have farmed out the adminstration of boring permits and and it turned out that this authority was very helpful.

Applying for a permit, I needed to investigate the conditions of all neighbors that reside less than 50 meters from the intended hole. The properties at less distance than

• ten meters to the property border from the hole,
  
• 20 meters from their geothermal heating hole or
  
• 50 meters from a well

have to be informed about the fact that we are boring a hole. The formal requirement is that we inform the neighbors that meet the above requirements and that they sign that they have received the information. The information to provide is simply that we intend to bore a hole for geothermal heating purposes.

Studying the image and its circles above, you'll see that there are two reasons that I have to inform about the hole:

1. The eastern neighbor's border is less than ten meters away.
   
2. The neighbor western neighbor, that is, the Witch has a well less than 50 meters away from the hole. You might se a V with a ring around it inside the outermost circle.

Hence, I had to visit or contact some ten households to find out if they had wells or geothermal heating holes and present this information in my application.

The eastern neighbor was informed and signed immediately. The Witch was quite a bit trickier. She lives in the city (Stockholm) and I tried to call her suggesting that I would pop up to present the information and to have a signature. She immediately said that I had to talk to her lawyer. Asking for his name, she hook up! This appeared to be an impassable road.

Instead, I wrote certificate template that I gave to the neighbor south-east of our lot for adjustment and signing. This neighbor's husband is a really nice guy. He likes cycling and transportation solutions that not always include cars and shares my opinion on studded tires.

The application was then sent to the authorities. It turned out that I had forgotten the north neighbor, that is, the commonage belonging to the city. I got a name to call, mailed a drawing and paper for signing. A few days later the authorities had acted and forced the Witch to sign.

We now have a boring permit. The hole will be at least 200 meters deep.