Commercial Energy Systems

If you own or manage any type of commercial or institutional building, check out the examples below and then contact us to see how we can help you evaluate, plan and install your system.

Schools

Schools across the nation are turning to geothermal. The savings on utility bills made possible by this technology are allowing forward thinking school boards to get a hold on their costs and turn their resources to the all-important goal of educating the kids. This move to geothermal started many years ago so there is now plenty of data available to substantiate the claims made when projects were in the planning stages.

Click here (download .pdf - 168k, courtesy of GeoExchange) to read about how the Lake City High School, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho was built with 503 tons of geothermal heating/cooling capacity and now has exceptionally low heating and cooling bills and is environmentally friendly at the same time. In this case the school was able to use 'open loops' which is extremely efficient.

Click here (download .pdf - 152k, courtesy of GeoExchange) to read how the Schuyler Elementary School in Queen City, Missouri converted its old heating and cooling system to geothermal. An air quality problem was solved by bringing in more fresh air but rather than this increasing the heating and cooling costs they actually went down. In this case, retrofit in 1992, the project had a simple payback of 2 ½ years.

An intensive study of the performance of several geothermal systems installed in the Lincoln Public Schools, Nebraska has been conducted. This considered not only utility costs but maintenance costs and performance. Click here for a powerpoint presentation on the comparison of the Maxey Elementary School to others in the District. Or Click here (download .pdf - 648k) to read the paper on a study of several schools that have gone geothermal.

If you would like to discuss the possibility of a school you are involved with going geothermal, contact us.

Places of Worship

Church, temple, mosque or meeting hall, it doesn't matter which; the cost of heating and cooling is escalating and sucking up valuable funds which could be put to much better use elsewhere.

If you are building new why not consider the benefits of geothermal? You might be surprised how much your community can save by investing a little extra capital up front. Click here (download .pdf - 176k, courtesy of GeoExchange) to see how a congregation in Ohio has benefited from a little forethought and up front investment.

Even if geothermal is unaffordable to your group, make sure that you fully consider the alternatives and then get the most appropriate furnace or high efficiency boiler for the purpose. Remember, controls and zoning are vitally important to the saving of energy and money while ensuring comfort for the occupants. Don't just take that low bid and then regret it forever.

If you are retrofitting your present building or just want to update your heating and cooling system you still have choices to make. Given a good duct system you might want to install a full geothermal system to manage all your heating and cooling needs.
Alternatively, a split system may be more appropriate with the geothermal sized to handle all the cooling needs but only about 80% of the heating (this can save a lot of capital up front).

If you have a hydronic heating system you may want to consider changing out the old boiler which works at maybe 70% efficiency and installing a new Viessmann, modulating, high efficiency boiler which can work up to 98% efficiency.

If you are involved in this kind of decision for your community contact us and let us help you work through the possibilities.

Resort and Park Buildings

No matter whether you are managing a small park building or large resort, energy bills are probably a major concern to you unless you have already taken the leap and moved over to geothermal, solar, or a combination of the two.

Many buildings of this nature are somewhat remote and have no access to natural gas. The alternatives, electricity and propane, are very expensive. A geothermal system installed as a retrofit or in a new building can have a payback period of 5-6 years. Well worth considering.

The sun provides a wonderful source of heat in our region and can be incorporated into a heating system to give big savings in the running costs.

Click here (download .pdf - 184k, courtesy of Waterfurnace) to read how Waterfurnace has helped a luxury resort in Utah combine geothermal heating and cooling with a spectacular location to provide a wonderful experience to their guests.

More locally, Vally Geothermal with BlueSky Energy Solutions has installed a geothermal system in the visitor center at Barr Lake State Park to provide a comfortable environment for the visitors at a low cost to the State Park System.

Contact us to discuss how you can reduce your present bills or look forward to low costs in your new building and at the same time help the environment which your guests are looking to enjoy.

Farm and Ranch Buildings

The price of propane is badly hurting many farming and ranching operations throughout this region. Geothermal heating and cooling can help you escape from those huge bills and get payback for your initial investment in only 5 or 6 years. Geothermal systems can heat and cool any of your buildings using either smaller heat pump units of up to 5 tons which are primarily intended for domestic purrposes or using large 10 to 20 ton commercial units.

Even if you have got natural gas available, geothermal systems will still reduce your bills and normally provide payback in 10 to 15 years.

If you happen to have a lake or a pond close by we may be able to use a 'pond-loop' for the system which reduces the initial cost and improves the efficiency.

Contact us to discuss your options.