Our geothermal hot well has lower well levels and lower well temperatures, why is that and how can we supplement it?

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Glenn Gailis
Updated: Aug. 26, 2025

We have lived in Klamath Falls, Oregon for 50 years. We live in a home built in 1943 and it had a very shallow hot water well ( 165 feet deep) with a well temperature then of 200+ degrees. Former owner said: " You've got a shallow very hot well with lots of home heat." We also have a continuous coil in our driveway to melt snow in the winter. It used to work very well when we still had temperatures of about 180 degrees. We no longer can use our well to melt driveway snow because the well temperature is now only about 130 degrees. Over probably the last ten years or more we have seen the well temperature gradually drop to now about 130 degrees and the hot water level in the well drop 15 to 18 feet. Prior to that the city of Klamath Falls put in there own hot water system to heat our downtown buildings and city swimming pool open year around. The city has two wells on Old Fort road maybe just a bit above us in elevationand reinject the pumped water quite a number of feet below our home downtown. The city pumps millions of gallons of water from their well per hour and in my opionion this is depleating the aquifer in our area and well. I have no Idea how to prove that however. Oregon Institute of technology also have heating wells and pump and reinject geothermal warter. My problem is that our heat is now not adequete to keep our home warm in the very cold winter weather. I am wondering what my options would be to supplement our lower well temperatures? Gas boiler? ( we have a forced air system not radiators or floor coil heating. ) Get a high efficiency heat pump to provide both heat and air conditioning to supplement our hot well? Go to a system that allows us to heat our home with the hot well when the temperature outside is not to low and then switch to gas heat when it is below say 15-20 degress or lower? Several other homes in our area have abandoned their hot wells and gone to gas heat because they, too, have seen their hot well temperatures drop quite a bit. I would appreciate some expert opinion on what our best options might be. Thank you. Glenn Gailis MD

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