Installers Hope Geothermal Heats Up
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DIGGING IN: (1) A “vertical loopfield†geothermal system installation begins with drilling down into the ground. Large commercial buildings tend to use vertical loopfields due to lack of space. (2) A “slinky loopfield†geothermal system as shown is most common for residential installations. (3) A fully installed geothermal heat pump.
In 2008 when Philip Wheeler, an environmental engineer and consultant, wanted to start a geothermal installation business, he felt that a good place to set up his first system would be in his own Shrewsbury home.
“Since then it’s been great,” he said.
With the economy improving and oil prices continually rising, business at Wheeler’s East Coast Geothermal in Clinton is heating up. He’s averaging between 15 and 30 appointments a week, with an equal number in the pipeline.
In addition to favorable market conditions, business is also being fueled by government subsidies, including a 30-percent tax credit for homeowners who install a geothermal system. There’s an equivalent 10-percent break for businesses.
Still, there are barriers for the geothermal industry, admits Kevin Maher, president of the New England Geothermal Professional Association, a regional trade group for geothermal installers and those involved in the industry.
Simply put, geothermal installations — which use the constant temperature of the earth below ground to more efficiently heat and cool a building — are not as well known compared to other energy efficiency improvement methods.
“Geothermal is the red-headed stepchild of renewable energies,” Maher said.
But people like Maher and Wheeler are trying to change that.
Bubbling Up
In part, some of the hesitation in the market regarding geothermal could be due to its high upfront costs.
While Wheeler said he can save an average customer 30 to 70 percent off their heating and cooling bills, the payback for a consumer varies widely depending on a number of factors, including how large the building is, what kind of heat pump is required and how easy it is to dig beneath the ground.
Geothermal systems also require fairly significant construction, which include pipes that are either laid out horizontally underground, or are drilled vertically into the ground, sometimes as deep as 2,000 feet.
The technology is based on the premise that about eight feet below ground, the earth’s temperature remains fairly constant, around 50 degrees in both the winter and summer. Geothermal systems circulate a liquid antifreeze solution beneath the ground, heating or cooling the liquid to that 50-degree temperature.
Then, when it returns to the surface, a heat pump — similar to the ones used in a refrigerator — uses the heat energy from below ground to provide hot or cold air throughout the building.
Unlike conventional boilers or natural gas heaters, the systems use no fossil fuels.
One factor that could be inhibiting the technology’s adoption in New England is the high cost of drilling compared to other parts of the country. Generally there is thick rock beneath the ground in many parts of Massachusetts and New England compared to parts of the South and Midwest.
Still, many organizations and residents across the area are embracing the technology, including Nichols College in Dudley.
When the school refurbished one of its residence halls and built a new one, Bob Lavigne, the school’s vice president for facilities management, wanted to try out a geothermal heating and cooling system.
The single system provides heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer to both three-story, 35,000-square-foot buildings using three, 1,500-foot deep wells.
“All colleges, including us, are always looking at ways to go green and reduce our carbon footprint,” he said.
Lavigne is monitoring the geothermal technology compared to the costs of heating and cooling the school’s other buildings and is considering using it further across campus.
But not everyone is bullish on the geothermal technology, including Bruce Harley, technical director in the applied building sciences division of Westborough-based Conservation Services Group.
Compared to fossil-fuel burning heaters, geothermal is generally more efficient, he said. But, just how much more efficient depends on the type of heat pump.
The single best way for a home or business owner to reduce heating and cooling costs is to make their building more efficient, he said.
While geothermal can help to reduce the cost of heating or cooling a building, actually reducing the amount of heat you need in the winter months can be a cheaper way to achieve similar savings, he said.
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