Ground Source Calculator — estimate ground source for your project. Fast, accurate, free. No signup required.
A ground-source heat pump uses a buried loop or borehole to exchange heat with the ground, which is usually more stable than outdoor air through the heating season. The ground array, soil conditions, trench length, pump electricity, and regeneration determine whether the system can sustain the design load. The Ground Source calculator keeps the topic-specific quantities visible so you can audit the assumptions before using the result.
Construction estimates are highly sensitive to site conditions, product specifications, local policy, and the stage of design. A useful early estimate states its units, boundary, design allowance, and source of any reference value. It should help you ask a better question of a supplier, designer, building-control officer, planning authority, or installer—not pretend that a three-field calculation is a signed design.
Use the related construction calculator for an adjacent check and the companion standards calculator when the result crosses into quantities, structure, services, energy, water, or regulation. Keep the original dimensions and assumptions with the displayed output so a later revision can be compared on like-for-like terms.
Where the page gives a consent, fire, electrical, accessibility, heritage, or safety prompt instead of a single number, that is deliberate. Those topics depend on documents, inspections, local rules, tested products, and professional judgement. The calculator can organise the first pass, but it cannot issue an approval or replace a competent person's review.
Electrical input (kW) = design heat demand ÷ ground-source COP; annual electricity = input × equivalent full-load heating hours.
The formula is intentionally shown beside the inputs. Convert millimetres, metres, kilowatts, amps, percentages, and category scores consistently, and keep intermediate precision until the final display. A plausible-looking answer can still be unusable if a clear opening was confused with an outside frame, a nominal capacity with a tested rating, or a planning assumption with a statutory threshold.
For site work, the formula is the beginning of the check rather than the complete specification. Add the conditions that control the real decision: subgrade and drainage for roads, grouping and installation method for cables, weather and emitter temperature for heat pumps, significance for heritage, occupancy for escape, and local policy for planning matters.
Inputs used here: design heat demand, ground-source COP, and annual heating hours. Keep each input traceable to a drawing, survey, test result, product sheet, policy document, or clearly marked planning assumption.
The estimate indicates the compressor electricity and an annual cost scenario. It does not size the ground loop: loop design needs geology, moisture, thermal conductivity, available land or borehole depth, antifreeze concentration, circulation-pump power, and heat-loss data.
Check direction and order of magnitude before relying on the result. A larger opening should increase area, a longer cable should increase voltage drop, a higher COP should reduce electrical input, a wider exit should increase the indicative capacity, and a higher traffic class should demand a stronger cover or pavement solution. If a change behaves the other way, recheck the units and the field mapping.
Do not report more precision than the survey or input supports. Round a procurement quantity up where the supplier sells discrete sizes, preserve the unrounded design calculation for review, and label any result based on a default rate or simplified weighting. If the number affects structural stability, fire safety, electric shock protection, accessibility, legal consent, or a regulated rating, stop at the estimate and obtain the appropriate review.
Ground-loop drilling, antifreeze selection, refrigerant systems, and electrical work need qualified design, permits where applicable, and professional commissioning. This calculator provides preliminary educational guidance only and does not constitute a structural design, electrical certificate, fire strategy, planning decision, Building Regulations approval, heritage consent, accessibility audit, or certified sustainability assessment.