Drilling to install the geothermal wells to help cool and heat the Market House is set to begin Monday morning.

The work is expected to last until about mid-March, Lisa Grieco of the Annapolis planning and zoning department, said during a council workshop on Friday.

Pedestrian traffic will not be affected and one lane of traffic will be open on Market Place during construction, according to a press release from the city. Delivery parking in Hopkins Plaza will be available on weekdays until 11 a.m.

Workers will install 20 geothermal wells, Grieco said. The work will be concluded in three stages, each stage lasting two weeks, according to the release.

City officials said they expect the closed-looped geothermal wells to be a significant energy savings compared to a conventional air-conditioning system. Also, they will require less maintenance than a conventional system, according to the release.

“The wells work with the earth’s somewhat-constant subsurface temperature, along with a heat exchanger, to add and take away heat from the Market House,” officials said in the release.

The budget for Market House renovations is $500,000, according to the release. The city obtained a $96,000 federal grant to defray the $290,000 cost of the geothermal system, as well as $250,000 of matching bond funds from the state for the overall improvements to Market House, according to the release.

Somerset Well Drilling, a Westover, MD-based geothermal contractor, was selected for the installation in a competitive bidding process in December 2011. Fresh Air Concepts, a Howard County-based HVAC contractor, is completing the second phase of the air-conditioning project that was started last spring. That work is expected to be complete by the end of February, Grieco said.