5 REASONS TO CONVERT TO A GEOTHERMAL SYSTEM AND THEN JUST 1 STEP TO ENERGY FREEDOM .....TODAY!
SOLAR AND GEO COMBINE FOR A NEARLY NET ZERO HOME
This E-book starts with a brief overview of the technology. We will then explore the benefits you will enjoy by converting to geo. I will make my case for why you should trust King Energy LLC for your conversion. The appendix includes information about who we are and three articles or excerpts from independent sources that I find illuminating and reinforcing.
TABLE OF CONTENTS SECTION 1: Overview of the system ...........................................................................................................................1 1.1
WHAT IT IS: ...............................................................................................................................................1
1.2
INSIDE STUFF: (equipment and ductwork) ...............................................................................................1
1.3
OUTSIDE STUFF: (ground loop)................................................................................................................2
SECTION 2: The 5 reasons (Specific Benefits to our Customers) ...............................................................................1 2.1
OPERATING COST SAVINGS ..................................................................................................................1
2.2
ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS................................................................................................................2
2.3
ENERGY SECURITY AND PRICE STABILITY ......................................................................................4
2.4
ENHANCED RELIABILITY, REDUCED MAINENANCE ......................................................................7
2.5
INCREASED RESALE VALUE .................................................................................................................7
SECTION 3: The 1 step (When to convert to geothermal) ...........................................................................................9 3.1
CONDITIONS THAT MAKE CONVERSION MORE COMPELLING ...................................................9
3.2
A GALLERY OF HOMES WITH GEO. ...................................................................................................11
3.3
WHY US? ..................................................................................................................................................16
SECTION 4: Appendix ..................................................................................................................................................1 4.1
WHO WE ARE: ...........................................................................................................................................1
4.2
INDEPENDENT STUDIES:.........................................................................................................................2
SECTION 1 1.1
OVERVIEW OF THE SYSTEM
WHAT IT IS:
A Geothermal Heat Pump (geo or GHP), is a refrigeration system much like other common and familiar refrigeration systems. We have refrigerators in the kitchen, water coolers in our offices and school hallways, central air conditioners parked next to our homes and huge commercial water chillers in most of our office towers. While there are several variations on the theme, all of these systems simply move heat from warmer to colder. They do not create heat. They move it. Without getting into the vapor compression cycle, let's just say these systems can absorb heat from over here, and put it over there. The refrigerator in your kitchen takes heat out of the box, and sends it into the kitchen itself. They also can do this at 25% or less of the cost of creating heat by burning fossil fuel. We are mostly used to refrigeration as a cooling process, but in reality, it has a cooling and a heating component. It all depends on what you want at the time. Reversing refrigeration systems can direct either heat or cool to the space as required. One of the limiting factors of a refrigeration system is the operating temperatures of where it is trying to remove or add heat to. Really cold and really hot can pose problems. By going geo, we can limit the extreme temperatures and keep the refrigeration system optimized. This is done by using an underground temperature 'sink' (this is the place we are either extracting or rejecting the unwanted heat/cool). Most refrigeration systems utilize the outdoor air as the heat sink. Depending on your climate, outdoor air temperatures may very well exceed the efficient operating requirements of a refrigeration system. This leads to several negative outcomes such as system inefficiency, equipment stress and reliance on a back-up system. When it is 10 degrees outside, or 95 degrees, the refrigeration system has to deal with it, and it's not easy. A geo system doesn't much care about the outdoor temperature, since underground, temperatures don't often go outside of 35 to 75 degrees. A geo system has three components, the heat pump, the distribution system and the ground loop.
1.2
INSIDE STUFF: (EQUIPMENT AND DUCTWORK) Two of the three above listed components are inside. The heat pump and the distribution system. The distribution is typically a ductwork system. Some special care has to be paid to the air flow capacities and air sealing and insulation of the ductwork, but for the most part, geo systems are compatible with most homes that already have central air
WELL SEALED AND ISULATED DUCTWORK
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conditioning. There are also hydronic, mostly radiant, distribution systems, and these are fine as long as the designer knows a geo water to water will not efficiently produce water much over 110 degrees. The heat pump component is best thought of as a really large refrigerator in your basement. It's really more of an appliance than a furnace. No flue pipe or oil tank or gas lines. No outdoor condenser. It's just a pretty box that we connect power, ducts and ground loop lines to. It's protected by being in the house, it's very quiet and it doesn't smell. Service is minimal. It simply runs. To the left is a Hydron Module four ton water to air, probably our most common unit. The stainless steel body really looks great.
1.3
OUTSIDE STUFF: (GROUND LOOP)
The outside stuff is called the ground loop. The ground loop is a length of high density polyethylene pipe that the geo system uses as a heat sink. The plastic is essentially inert and really tough. Through the piping, the geo system circulates propylene glycol, a non-toxic antifreeze solution. It is a closed loop system, meaning there is no water consumption and no concerns about pretty much anything. This 'heat exchanger' is used by the geo system to either absorb or reject heat. It just accepts or rejects heat as the heat pump needs. A FOUR TON WATER TO AIR UNIT
Ground loops come in two major flavors, horizontal or vertical. There are many ways to design loops and some of the variables are the heat of extraction or rejection, the pressure drop and the pipe size and manifolding. We greatly prefer, whether vertical or horizontal, that each individual loop comes into the building to be manifolded in an accessible area. This enables us to prove flow through each loop and in the advent of a problem, we can identify and isolate the loop giving us problems. Let me emphasize, problems are rare, but it's good to be able to do something about it if it happens.
TYPICAL HORIZONTAL TRENCH
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UNDERGOURND VAULT, RARELY NEEDED
Horizontals are pipes laid in trenches, typically 4' deep. We gravitate to multiple loops of 400' to 600' using 1" polyethylene pipe, 160 psi. We have installed systems that had certain encumbrances on the area available that dictated fewer loops, and longer, and that required us to up the pipe size to 1 1/4". We like the manifolds to be inside the building but that can't always happen. The left side picture is from a 15 ton job in Vermont. Due to the presence of a pool, we had to run our mains out 150' away from the home. From the vault, as we call it, the 3" mains distribute to eight 1 1/4" loops, each 1500' long. An exterior vault is rarely necessary, but I think it gives you a good look at the manifold. To give you some sense of scale, this system is roughly three to four times the typical residential system. (it's a really big house)
Vertical installations require a well driller to drill a 6" diameter hole in the ground anywhere
from 250' to 600' deep. The plastic pipe is then installed into the hole and the extra space is filled with a grouting material. It is important to understand we are not using the water in the well for the heat pump. The well is simply a place to put our heat exchange pipes. With a closed
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loop system, there is no potential for water quality or quantity issues. We also do not need a place to dispose of the water. We actually don't care if the hole is dry. Another aspect of the ground loop is the method employed to make perfect connections as required underground. Ground loops do not tolerate leaks, and to insure perfect integrity of the system, all connections are made using a heat fusion process. This tool squares the faces of the pipe ends, melts them to 475 degrees, and slides them together to produce a 'weld'. Like welding metal, the resulting joint is stronger than the pipe itself. Another aspect of all ground loops is that there is nothing visible above grade. Both horizontals and verticals are completely underground.
BUTT FUSION TOOL
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SECTION 2: CUSTOMERS) 2.1
THE 5 REASONS (SPECIFIC BENEFITS TO OUR
OPERATING COST SAVINGS
People are always attracted to geothermal heat pumps, at least partially, on savings. Who doesn’t like to save money? Savings is a more complicated issue than most would assume. When asked ‘How much will I save?’, I reply, ‘How much do you spend?’. A geothermal system can be 30% or 50% or 70% more cost efficient than conventional systems. However, 50% isn’t something that goes in the bank. 50% of what? There are folks out there that spend ghastly sums on space conditioning, and others that are getting by really well. Remember, half of a lot is a lot. Half of almost nothing is almost nothing. This brings me to our strategy to treat the house as a system, which will be discussed elsewhere. Conservation is far and away the first step. However, it is difficult or impossible to conserve yourself to comfort, and after all reasonable conservation measures are in place, we can now talk about the benefits of geothermal. Even after this, I still prefer to speak of savings not as an absolute dollar amount, but in terms of $/btu delivered to the home. Cost of fuel
(100,000 btu/unit)
efficiency
$/100,000 btu
Oil
$3.75
1.4/gal
.82
$3.26
Propane
$2.75
0.95/gal
.95
$3.04
Electric Resistance
$0.16
0.03413/kwh
1.00
$4.83
$0.165
0.03413/kwh
4.00
$1.21
Geothermal Heat Pump
Heating Costs per 100,000 BTU $6.00 $5.00 $4.00 $3.00
COST
$2.00 $1.00 $FUEL OIL
PROPANE
ELECTRIC
1
GEOTHERMAL
As you can see, geothermal heat pumps deliver heat into the space at under half the cost of the nearest competitor. To be honest, you could design a super insulated passive solar home that has so little heating requirements that cutting the heat bill in half would hardly matter. I say this only to reinforce the idea that your savings will depend on your consumption, and I love reducing consumption first. However, we have left the days where conservation meant ‘freezing in the dark’. A comfortable indoor environment, especially in an existing home, requires a right sized central system, and the best choice at that point is geothermal.
2.2
ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS
Reduction of emissions is one of the many benefits of geothermal systems. Typically heating and cooling in today's homes uses carbon based fuel. When we burn something, the products of combustion are spewed into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, sulfur compounds, particulates and other pollutants change the composition of our air. Without getting into the global warming/climate change debate (because I'm of the opinion no one truly understands all of the complexities involved), it just seems prudent to me to minimize activities that most likely have negative consequences we don't fully grasp. We have many examples of products or activities once deemed safe that were shown at a later time to be quite hazardous. Asbestos, PCB's, leaded gasoline, DDT, nuclear tests, Agent Orange etc. are just the tip of the iceberg. Given our lack of a solid understanding of the ramifications of using our air as a sewer, shouldn't we try to do it less? We have a proven ability to alter the spaceship we live on, and often not for the better. The best description of the 'status quo' stance is 'reckless'. One of the important criteria for analyzing air pollution issues is the distinction between 'point source' and 'non-point source' emissions. The former is a source where the emissions are concentrated in one locality and the latter is a much more diffuse source of pollution. Think of the power generated and consumed at a typical power plant, Then, I need you to think of how many homes that power can satisfy. Whether fueled by coal, oil, natural gas or nuclear, this happens in one place and any remediation measures can occur on site. I'm not advocating nuclear although I do feel it might be the least destructive option temporarily. My operative point is the concentration of power generation at one place. Whether we seek carbon recapture and sequestration, or scrubbers, it is crucial the source of the pollution be located in one spot. A single power plant can provide power to thousands of geo homes. There are no emissions from a geo unit so any environmental degradation that occurs can be addressed at the single generation site (point source). Fossil fuel burners in individual homes like boilers and furnaces are totally different in this regard. They are everywhere (non-point source) and there is absolutely no way they can be all kept to any sort of clean environmental standards. They are subject to maintenance schedules that may or may not be kept up. Keeping them ALL burning clean is the only defense, but there are a lot of them, and it's ridiculous to think that in practice, they ALL stay clean. I've disassembled my share of flue pipes that are obviously spewing air borne filth. Let's just say
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they were not clean. (It makes me wonder about the emissions testing for my truck. My 2010 Nissan can't possibly be as dirty as a 30 year old oil burner, but I have to have it tested?) Even if these remote burners were kept burning clean, a big picture remediation option like carbon recapture is unfeasible. Cars, chainsaws, lawn tractors and any number of gasoline powered tools emit pollution that is impossible to remediate short of outlawing the particular equipment. Good luck getting that by Briggs and Stratton or Stihl, never mind GM, Ford, Exxon/Mobil or just about anyone on Wall Street. I don't think we need to be perfect, but what we need to do is pick the low hanging fruit. Your lawn tractor should be fine for now, as should my chainsaw. Neither of us can do much about the car just yet. What we can do is stop burning fossil fuel to heat our homes. If we all did, it would put a serious set of brakes on the whole 'coming off the tracks' feeling that we all share. Let's focus in on CO2 emissions and how different choices for HVAC compare. Calculating the level of reduction of CO2 emissions involves a fair number of steps to be taken to compare various fuel options. We need to know the CO2 emissions for each fuel per common unit of heat content. The unit commonly used is called a "therm." A therm is 100,000 btus. I used data from a website: http://www.carbonfund.org/how-we-calculate#Conversions The raw data for CO2 content and then the final value (after equalizing for heat content and efficiency) of pounds per therm for each fuel is listed below. The CO2 emissions for electricity is a New England average. Regional differences are significant depending on the makeup of the electricity sources (fossil fuel, nuclear or renewable). The national average is 1.22 lbs/kwh with the lowest, Vermont at .0055lbs/kwh and the highest, North Dakota at 2.069 lbs/kwh. At first glance, electricity is the highest CO2 emitter, but that would apply for using electric resistance heat. Geothermal systems run at an annual average efficiency of 400%. The CO2 emissions associated with a geothermal system is only a quarter of the listed CO2 emission for electric heat. Oil-
10.15 kg/gallon
16.24 lbs/therm
0.005 tonnes/CCF
11.02 lbs/therm
Propane
5.74 kg/gallon
13.32 lbs/therm
Electricity
0.728 lbs/kwh
21.33 lbs /therm
Geothermal heat pump
0.728 lbs/kwh
5.33lbs /therm
Natural gas
The percentage of CO2 emissions reductions achieved by going geothermal for heat is as follows.
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Oil
67.2%
Natural gas
51.6%
Propane
60.0%
Electric resistance
75%
On the air conditioning side, things are much simpler. Since conventional air conditioning and geothermal use the same fuel source, the CO2 reductions are a matter of efficiency. For existing units, SEER ratings (cooling efficiency) of 8 to 12 would include most units. For new construction, SEER ratings of 16 would be for high quality conventional equipment. An average SEER for a geothermal system would be 20. CO2 reductions achieved by going geothermal are as follows: Retrofitting older equipment- 40% to 60% New construction with high quality equipment- 20%
2.3
ENERGY SECURITY AND PRICE STABILITY
The availability and price of energy is a huge concern for homeowners and businesses in our area. The first line of defense against price spikes or shortages is conservation and efficiency. If you need less, then you are less at risk. Geothermal heat pumps run at an average efficiency of 400%. This means 75% of the heat they provide is pulled from the ground. It is not subject to price fluctuations, and it will always be there. The next area of concern is the differences between fuels in terms of price, source and regulation. Geo systems run on electricity. Electricity is produced in many ways. Coal and oil fired plants are being retired and natural gas generation is on the rise. We still have nuclear plants. We get a considerable amount of power from hydro, both locally and from Canada. Renewable sources such as solar PV and wind are also on the rise. They are also sourced locally and from out west. Power from renewable and nuclear sources has a much more stable price profile than fossil fuel based sources. We are relying more on natural gas and it can be volatile. There is currently a market glut for natural gas and prices are depressed. For now anyway, the natural gas market price is set domestically and worldwide demand has very little do with pricing. That may change. Fuel oil is the energy source that is most affected by global supply, demand and market pricing. Events in the Middle East as well as increased demand from China, India or the developing world can cause wild swings in the price of crude oil. Industrial missteps such as the BP oil spill in the gulf or the Exxon Valdez accident also can disrupt the market for crude oil, and these price swings are felt by the consumer directly. Sidebar: (I always get a kick out of the infomercials touting "American energy resources". They make it sound like Americans collectively own the energy. I can just imagine a trusted (and paid
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for) voice, like James Earl Jones or Senator Fred Thompson, saying "Come my fellow Americans and we will harvest God's bounty. Roll up your sleeves and together we will provide for our children and our children's children". Absolute bunk! The oil that washed up on gulf beaches wasn't yours or mine. It was BP's. Do they sound American? How about Royal Dutch Shell drilling in the Alaskan arctic? Just because something is here doesn't make it ours. It also seems that no matter how much oil they find, it's always the $100/barrel kind. They never seem to find the cheap stuff. As for natural gas, China and Europe are paying three to four times our domestic price, and as soon as facilities to liquefy natural gas are up and running, you can bet lots of that 'American' gas is heading overseas. The windfall profits will end up in very few pockets. Prices will equalize, but it is safe to assume our price will go up much farther than theirs goes down. Don't fall for the industry fairy tales delivered by the info babe wearing a corporate power pant suit who seems like Gwyneth Paltrow playing T. Boone Pickens. Drill here, drill now! Really? If we want to do something for our children's children, we'll leave it down there) The other stabilizer for the price of electricity is state regulation. Since the power companies are regulated monopolies, rate structures require approval from state regulators. There are some market forces, mostly with the generation charges, that enable the consumer to shop on price, but those also are subject to state oversight. Power from fixed cost, domestic sources combined with regulation results in considerable stability in the price of electricity. For the ultimate in security and price stability, a geo system can be mated with a renewable source like solar PV or wind. It is not feasible to have your own oil well but we have many customers who have both geo and solar PV. The economics work out great, but these homeowners absolutely revel in the independence that such a system affords.
RETROFITTED SOLAR PV WITH GEOTHERMAL
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SOLAR PV WITH GEO SINCE 1987
GROUND MOUNTED SOLAR ARRAY
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2.4
ENHANCED RELIABILITY, REDUCED MAINENANCE
Geo systems are simple. There have relatively few moving parts. There is no combustion and no flue pipe to clean. All motors are a sealed bearing design that require no maintenance. There is no tank to be filled. There is no equipment out in the weather either covered in snow or baking in the sun or being eaten by mice. It is one machine that performs the whole job. When compared to conventional heating and cooling systems, it is just simpler mechanically with fewer things that can break. The only regular maintenance is air filter changes, usually on an annual basis. I tell our customers to think of the heat pump as a large refrigerator in the basement. If you want to be nice to your refrigerator, you will periodically vacuum the coils on the bottom. That's the same as changing the air filter on our heat pump. ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air conditioning Engineers), indicates the life expectancy of a geo system is 18 years (we have several at 30+) which exceeds the life expectancy of furnaces and condensers. The underground piping should last forever and never need replacement. The anti-freeze solution does not need to be changed. Since the equipment is inside and under more controlled and limited variations in operating conditions, system reliability is greatly improved compared to conventional systems.
2.5
INCREASED RESALE VALUE
The positive effects of a geothermal installation on a home's resale value are considerable. Reduced operating costs is a prime benefit. The value added is listed in one study as +8%, and another study indicates a $20 increase in value for every $1 reduction in operating costs. Links to these reports are listed below. It has been my experience that these benefits are seen across the board for geothermal installations and the trend is for these benefits to be more highly valued going forward. We see other benefits to home valuation occur in the retrofit market. People value new equipment over existing equipment nearing the end of its useful life. New equipment means less maintenance and more reliability. Since geothermal is inherently both heating and cooling, both systems are updated and in some installations, the geothermal system also represents the addition of central air conditioning where it didn't exist before, which clearly adds to the home's value. Real estate appraisal is not precise. It is driven by customer sentiment which is hard to pin down and changeable. To that end, I can relate experiences I've had concerning what makes a buyer tick.
Some anecdotal evidence: We did a job maybe eight years ago for a spec builder. We don't often work on spec houses because of the budget demands, but this guy was pretty good. Turns out, he sold the house during a difficult stretch of the market SPECIFICALLY because it had geothermal heat. For this buyer, the house had to be geo. I can't say there are a lot of those buyers out there, but here's one and I believe they are a growing segment.
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I recently serviced a 10 year old unit that has a relatively new owner. Just met them. Prior to looking at this house they knew nothing about geothermal. After some research, it became the number one reason they wanted to buy the house, and they did. We just finished a pretty good sized retrofit on a home changing hands. The new owners contacted us prior to buying the house, and they maintain they were not going to buy it unless the geo conversion was an option. It seems the previous owner went through about 4,000 gallons of oil annually, and that expense was simply too much for the new owners. We have another customer who was interested in buying a house with our heat pump in it. He had no idea about this geo stuff. He called me in to meet and greet, and all went really well. His one reservation about the house was the geo, but after living there for four or five years, it turned out to be his favorite attribute of the home. Since the unit was by now 25 years old, he recently decided to pop in a new one before the old one started acting up. There was no question in his mind about staying with the geo. We are in the process of completing a huge job for a vacation home. This place is big and gorgeous and really special. The owner is a very successful money manager. The geothermal system is expensive. The owner insisted on geothermal not so much for the money he will save on operating expenses, but he felt this home would have very limited marketability unless he did everything he could to reduce the heating/cooling costs for a potential buyer in the future. The owner is confident he will recoup his investment by using energy efficiency to widen the pool of potential buyers who could afford to own this home. With energy costs only rising, he was afraid of building a 'white elephant' that only very few people could feed. This guy knows money, and I like the way he thinks. I think there is a strong segment of the buying community that is attracted to geothermal. It is in line with the efforts to brand houses as EnergyStar or LEED. It still seems to be a customer driven phenomenon, and it is my hope that energy efficiency will become a stronger factor in peoples purchasing patterns going forward. It looks like it is moving that way. Some websites:
Geothermal heating/cooling systems increase home resale value by up to 8%. See HowNews http://paramountgeo.com/is-green-good-for-home-resale-value/ http://www.geothermalgenius.org/blog/will-geothermal-increase-the-value-of-my-home http://thbes.com/blog/2011/07/heat-pumps-reduce-utility-bills-increase-home-resale-value/ Significant Savings & Added Property Value http://www.dominiongeothermal.com/GeoThermal-Facts.html Resale value is a really tricky business. Realtors and appraisers try very hard to assign a value on a property and often use what are called 'comparable sales', meaning the selling price of similar homes in a similar area. Depending on the level of activity in a given market,
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comparable sales can be an effective barometer. If activity is really weak, it can be statistically insignificant. Since geothermal is still a small segment of the housing market, it's effects are very difficult to quantify. There is definitely a group of potential buyers for whom energy efficiency is a crucial factor. How it fits in with other factors such as closet space and local schools is unclear. Geo's relative importance to individual buyers varies dramatically. A geothermal heat pump greatly enhances the ability of a borrower to make the required payments. This fact may not be adequately represented in the bank formulations, but it remains a hard and fast fact. Hopefully, more credit can be given in the future for the financial strength a geothermal heat pump lends a homeowner. Maybe the bank can either lend more, or lend at better terms. Even with not giving fair credit for the operating cost savings of a geothermal system, having a new heating/cooling system definitely adds value, and that advantage will be reflected in the selling price.
SECTION 3 3.1
THE 1 STEP (WHEN TO CONVERT TO GEOTHERMAL?)
CONDITIONS THAT MAKE CONVERSION MORE COMPELLING
This one is really simple. Unless you have a geothermal system, the time to convert is now. You are already paying for a geo through high operating costs on your conventional system. You just don't have a geo. Our contention is that anyone who doesn't have a geo system would do well by converting to one. However, some situations are better than others. Here are a few situations homeowners or businesses are faced with that open the door to strongly consider converting to geo.
YOU ARE BUILDING A NEW HOME For a new home, the incremental cost of a geothermal heat pump is almost negligible for a home getting heat and air conditioning. The 30% tax credit was designed to offset the extra expense and in practice, it does
BRAND NEW HOME WITH GEOTHERMAL
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YOU ARE PUTTING ON AN ADDITION Additions can be challenging. You want to utilize what you can, but often the system needs to be reconfigured to work correctly. New zoning or increased capacity are often items on the to do list. This is a great time to look at the big picture and install a geo that services the whole project well. Many things can change in a rehab/addition situation. Changes in the insulation levels and window sizes all affect the HVAC system. We specialize in looking at the end product and designing and installing a system to provide satisfaction to the folks who live there. YOUR EXISTING SYSTEM IS PAST IT'S USEFUL LIFE AND NEEDS REPLACING Replacing existing equipment costs money. It has to be done periodically. This is a perfect time to consider geo. While it is true that new conventional equipment is more efficient than the old stuff you are replacing, conventional equipment cannot match the benefits of a geo system. It's a classic example of having good money chase after bad money. Why invest in 20th century technology when 21st century technology is available? This pretty Victorian is going through an extensive rehab. The existing system, TWO THREE TON GEOS WILL HANDLE THIS HOME boiler, condensers, air handlers, ductwork and domestic water heater were all shot. We replaced everything with two three ton geo units and a hybrid domestic water heater. Sure, it was expensive, but the owners were going to have to spend quite a bit on the conventional option and not derive as large a benefit. YOU WANT TO ADD CENTRAL AIR CONDITIONING Many homes and businesses do not enjoy central air conditioning. It's a very desirable feature. Instead of settling for the conventional wisdom and installing an old style system why not upgrade to geo and enjoy all of the other benefits? This home had no AC and oil baseboard heating. A complete geo/ ductwork system is in progress, and not only will the owners now have AC and a dramatically more efficient system, they plan on the next step, a 10Kw solar PV system.
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YOU SIMPLY WANT TO DO YOUR PART TO MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE This one's my favorite. I'm a believer. I don't know much about what is going on in Syria and Iraq. I don't know much about the pros and cons of fracking. I don't know much about global warming. How's the song go?, "Don't know much about history...", but I do know using less is good. From an economic, environmental, safety, national security or geo political perspective, geothermal is clearly the best option. This home's owners replaced relatively recent equipment with geo for the NICE GEO CONVERSION. OWNERS WANT TO DO THEIR PART savings, but also a prime motivation was to do their part to be cleaner. They have two youngsters and they feel if they don't do it, who will?
3.2
A GALLERY OF HOMES WITH GEO.
Geo homeowners come in all shapes and sizes, from the regular Joe to the Uber-wealthy. This section is intended to drive home the fact that geo is for everyone. There are two odd aspects of geo. The first is geo is invisible. Unlike solar or windmills, there are no identifying features visible with a geo system. Sure, you could walk around an air conditioned house and note the absence of outdoor condensers. Who's going to do that (besides me)? The second oddity about geo is the persistent misconception it is only for rich people or tree huggers (or more likely, rich tree huggers). I beg to differ. Geo is for anyone who pays a heating and cooling bill. The following is a very incomplete sampling of our jobs. Whether big or little, old or new, new construction or conversion, geo is for all of you. I hope this helps augment your confidence. It's really true that real people of all stripes go geo! I live in the quiet little town of Lebanon, Ct. The population is about 7,000. We have 26 geo heat pumps running in this little town. East Lyme is a bigger town and we have 32 units running there. Waterford has 30 but tiny Voluntown has 10. Voluntown and Lebanon are rather similar. Both are rural and small towns and neither is fabulously wealthy. East Lyme and Waterford are more desirable, wealthier, and they have more geo units than the two rural towns mentioned, but not by much. My point is geo can and should be for everyone, and the geographic distribution of our work indicates it is. You can't see the geo homes. Rest assured, they are there. Lots of them.
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This is a beautiful cottage of about 2200' in Stonington. It has an EnergyStar rating and a four ton geo system. One interesting aspect is the vertical well is actually in the middle of the basement. It was drilled before the foundation went in. In these shoreline areas, often the original building is demolished and the new building expands to the limit of the side yard setbacks. This left no room for outdoor condensers, so the geo also solved a space problem. We also added internet enabled thermostats and you can see the lady of the house checking on the system status. This is a 2,400 ft colonial in Lebanon built in 1990. It has a four ton heat pump running on a 1600' horizontal. This one has no back-up heat source. For 25 years, this home has proven a back-up system is not necessary and a geo system can do the whole job. That's a cold looking picture!
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This is a log cabin in Franklin that must be 30 years old. We yanked out the oil fired baseboard system and ran a complete duct system to not only convert to geo but provide central air. Since the heat load is high, the five ton unit is running on 3000' of 1 1/4" horizontal loop. The exit space from the house was limited, so we went with three loops, each at 1000'
This is a brand new 'Deck House' in Mansfield. It's sort of a premanufactured timber frame kit house. The style features wood finished vaulted ceilings and mahogany all over the place. Really nice. We have a three ton and a four ton unit servicing four zones and it's running on two 400' wells. This house also features a three panel ground mount solar PV.
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This one is a stunning riverside estate in Middle Haddam that was converted to geo. It's written up on our website, but I just had to include it here.
FIVE HEAT PUMPS SATISFY THIS COMPLICATED ESTATE
This Cheshire home used to go through about 4000 gallons of oil per year. Just this spring we converted it to a three ton and a four ton geo system and we fully expect tremendous results.
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This is a rather old, (might be 100 years), cottage in Niantic that we were able to convert to geo. The install included a complete duct system. That part got tricky, but the owner is delighted with the results. Being bigger would not add to the charm of this home. It is really cozy and comfortable.
This is another Niantic home. Niantic can be a crowded shoreline town were the houses are packed in pretty tight. It is new construction, but the owners seemed to gravitate to a throwback look. Something modern would look very much out of place here. It's not big but it is really nice and boasts a four ton geo system, EnergyStar shell and is running on a vertical.
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This a very well thought out EnergyStar home in Lebanon that we did five years ago. It's about 2000' with three bedrooms. It has a four ton geo unit and the 10 kw solar PV is new this summer. I recently talked to the owner and he is absolutely giddy over the performance of his house and the geo system. He is really optimistic the solar will carry him year over year. He just entered retirement and the efficiency of this house has a strong positive impact on his ability to finance his retirement.
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WHY US?
I could answer this question many ways. Either 30+ years experience or singular focus on geothermal would be suitable answers, but I think it's best to let one of my customers answer the question. Here we go: "Well we are still amazed at the amount of money we are saving per year with your system. With the tax credits, the rebate from CL&P, the savings of not buying $7200.00 per year in fuel oil; the additional money we paid to switch over to Geothermal we have recouped this year. We see approximately a $300 per month increase in our electric bill in the coldest months of the winter. This additional expense is minor in comparison to burning 500 plus gallons of fuel oil per month during the same periods and keeping the temperature at 65 degrees or lower. We stay at 70-72 degrees all winter, 65 degrees at night. The electric bills in the summer are lower and not having the 6 window air conditioners is great. So we really recouped all of our
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investment in just over two years…..not five. We would have been happy to recoup the investment in 10 years. "We replace the air filters on a regular schedule and check/clean the condensation pump line. I don't think anyone in an old home could resist, even if you have to take out a loan. Plus working with your company is great…geothermal is the logical and only choice." It still makes me proud to read that. I often think potential customers feel they are going out on a limb when considering a geo system. My hope is the above examples install confidence that you are not alone in choosing geo. There is a robust demand for these systems as well as a strong network of support. The above homeowners, and thousands more have been enjoying geo for in some cases 20+ years. To rephrase a previous passage in this article, I'd like to huff up my deepest voice and declare, "Come my fellow Americans, let us roll up our sleeves and together make a bright future for our children and our children's children. There is a path. That path is conservation, efficiency, geothermal and renewable energy. That path leads to savings, security, reliability, independence and a cleaner and more sustainable way of life. That path is the path we should take." The one step you need to take to secure your energy future is to call Scot Rogers @ 860420-7134. From there, a plan tailored to your specific situation will be developed. Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope it helps. kingenergyllc.com.
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Please visit us @
SECTION 4-APPENDIX 4.1
WHO WE ARE:
King Energy LLC has been servicing homeowners interested in the benefits of geothermal heating/cooling since 1983. Back then, there weren't many folks who knew about it, but the technology is catching on, and we have over 30 years of experience with it. We have well over 1,000 installations under our belt, and you can be assured there is nothing outside of our experience that could happen that we aren't ready for. I'd like to introduce myself and the other two principals of King Energy LLC.
I'm Rick King and I installed my first geo system in 1983. I've been doing it exclusively ever since. It's been exciting to see the industry advance and gratifying to see the long term satisfaction our customers experience. We have seen many iterations of government and utility support and a big part of my job is to stay on top of current programs to the best benefit of our customers. We want you, our customers, to enjoy every benefit available. My favorite experience is when a customer from the 80's calls and says, "I think it's time for a new one". No concern about maybe doing something else. Just do it again. I guess they would know best! This is Scot Rogers. He has been with the company since 2007 and does all of our site visits, engineering and design, and estimating. He's essentially the first face new people see from King Energy LLC. He brings an interesting perspective to his role. Aside from having a degree in electrical engineering and considerable experience in patent research, Scot's first experience with geo was when King Energy installed one in the new home he built around 2005. He liked it so much, he joined the company. His experience in shopping for and owning a geo system gives him invaluable insight into the concerns and anxieties new customers may be feeling. This is Bob Moskites. He came on board in 2003. He's our operations manager. He makes the job go smoothly. Be it scheduling or materials handling, coordinating our subcontractors or keeping lines of communication open with the customer, Bob runs each job. From start to finish, Bob earns a customer's trust. Of the three of us, he's the one who'll be invited to the end of job party. Most of our customers don't meet Bob until the job starts, and by the end they realize he does the heavy lifting. He's our go to guy, and all of our customers know it.
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4.2
INDEPENDENT STUDIES:
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Measuring the Costs and Benefits of Nationwide Geothermal Heat Pump Deployment- A progress report Elizabeth C. Battocletti, Bob Lawrence & Associates, Inc., Alexandria, Virginia William E. Glassley, Department of Geology, University of California, Davis, California
Abstract The use of geothermal heat pump systems (GHPs) in the United States is marginal, despite their high efficiency and minimal greenhouse gas emissions. To evaluate the consequences of broader deployment of GHPs we are conducting a national cost-benefit analysis for 30 metropolitan regions. The three-year effort is known as the GHPsRUS Project (“Geothermal Heat Pumps are U.S.”). In previous papers, we reported on the project’s basic approach and progress in acquiring geological data needed to quantitatively model GHP design specifications and cost. In this paper, we report on the progress of the GHPsRUS Project. Introduction Geothermal heat pumps (GHPs) deliver reliable, cost effective, and energy efficient heating and cooling. Among the most efficient heating and cooling technologies available, GHPs use the relatively constant temperature of the earth to heat and cool buildings. GHPs may also provide domestic hot water (DHW). GHPs are an important energy conservation technology; they use significantly less energy than conventional heating or cooling systems; about 70% of the total energy used in a GHP system is renewable from the ground (GeoExchange, Undated). According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), GHPs can reduce energy consumption—and corresponding greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions—by up to 44% compared to air-source heat pumps and by up to 72% compared to electric resistance heating with standard air- conditioning equipment (USDOE, Undated). Conclusion The U.S. GHP industry has a well-distributed national presence. Although currently small, if encouraged to grow, the consequence would be national jobs and economic growth – this is not just a Midwest or rust belt industry. The impact would be broad, since the industry is distributed over many components of the economy – manufacturing, drilling, construction, engineering and design, distribution, etc. Energy use and greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced significantly in nearly all regions of the country. Results of the GHPsRUS Project to date are robust. Although specifics are not currently evident several months prior to the project’s end, the overall impact is very heavily weighted to the positive side.
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Oak Ridge National Laboratory Report # ORNL/TM-2008/232 Executive Summary
More effective stewardship of our resources contributes to the security, environmental sustainability, and economic well-being of the nation. Buildings present one of the best opportunities to economically reduce energy consumption and limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Geothermal heat pumps (GHPs), sometimes called ground-source heat pumps, have been proven capable of producing large reductions in energy use and peak demand in buildings. If the federal government set a goal for the U.S. buildings sector to use no more nonrenewable primary energy in 2030 than it did in 2008, based on previous analyses (updated and summarized in this report), it is estimated that 35 to 40 percent of this goal, or a savings of 3.4 to 3.9 quads annually, could be achieved through aggressive deployment of GHPs. GHPs could also avoid the need to build 91 to 105 GW of electricity generation capacity, or 42 to 48 percent of the 218 GW of net new capacity additions projected to be needed nationwide by 2030. In addition, $33 to 38 billion annually in reduced utility bills (at 2006 rates) could be achieved through aggressive deployment of GHPs. However, GHPs have received little attention at the policy level as an important component of a national strategy. Have policymakers mistakenly overlooked GHPs, or are GHPs simply unable to make a major contribution to the national goals for various reasons? This brief study was undertaken at DOE’s request to address this conundrum. The scope included determining the status of global GHP markets and the status of the GHP industry and technology in the United States, assembling previous estimates of GHP energy savings potential, identifying key barriers to application of GHPs, and identifying actions that could accelerate market adoption of GHPs. Although the U.S. was once the world leader in GHP technology and market development, European markets now absorb 2 to 3 times the number of GHP units annually as do the U.S. domestic markets. Market growth rates in Europe, parts of Asia (China, South Korea), and Canada exceed those in the United States. In terms of installed base of GHPs, the United States still has the largest absolute number, but on a per capita basis many European countries are ahead. Today’s domestic GHP industry is better positioned for rapid growth than ever before. The technology is proven, with an installed base in the United States exceeding 600,000 GHP units. Tax credits for home and business owners investing in GHP systems were enacted in
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October 2008 through 2016. Since 2007 one segment of the utility industry, the rural electric cooperatives (RECs), have been able to obtain long-term loans with terms of up to 35 years at the cost of government funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service (USDA/RUS) to provide the outside-the-building portion of GHP systems to customers in exchange for a tariff on the utility bill, which would be more than offset by the GHP system’s energy cost savings. In December 2007 Congress directed the General Services Administration (GSA) to establish a program to accelerate the use of more costeffective energy-saving technologies and practices in GSA facilities, starting with lighting and GHPs. A growing number of States offer tax credits or other forms of incentives for GHP systems The most important trade allies of the GHP industry, electric utilities, today are better able to focus on peak load reduction and improved load factor, two key GHP system benefits, than they were in the past when restructuring was looming. The industry’s support organizations ─ the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association, Geothermal Heat Pump Consortium, Inc., American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers, and National Ground Water Association ─ are mature and robust. If the domestic GHP markets were to expand rapidly most of the segments of the industry would be able to expand accordingly without creating bottlenecks. However, the GHP system design and installation infrastructure would require special attention. Currently these infrastructures only exist in some localities, and elsewhere customers lack access to the technology.
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