What’s Special About IGSHPA Geothermal Installer Certification? Do you Really Need it?

It’s a good and valid question.

If you’re curious what certification is, you can see here: What is the IGSHPA Certification?  But more importantly, what is the value of IGSHPA certification in the marketplace – who is it valuable for and why would one bother to take the training?

While the certification doesn’t necessarily allow you to pull permits (see the review the geothermal license, certifications, and permitting) it does provide you with the knowledge and confidence to sell a job and then perform the design and installation. In addition, many states are requiring IGSHPA certification to to apply for incentives. Connecticut requires it, and Minnesota will provide higher rebates for IGSHPA Certified installers. Read below for the full description of the IGSHPA certification, and if you have any questions about it, feel free to ask us on our HeatSpring’s facebook page.

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July 22nd, 2011|Categories: Certification, Drilling|Tags: , , , , , |
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Sizing Heat Pumps to Maximize Geothermal Economics in the Design Process [Video Tutorial]

Yes, that’s my picture from my first video tutorial. Last week, I wrote a article on the 4 basic steps to deseigning a geothermal heat pump system for a residential home. To refresh your memory, those steps are 1) perform heat gain/loss calculations 2) size the heat pump 3) size the loop field 4) size the ground loop. To read more, click no the above link to get the full walk through.

I mentioned at the end that there were a few advanced design topics I did not cover. One was the trade off in heating dominate climates between a small unit that is undersized for heating and thus sometimes needs to use (very exepsnvie) electric heat versus a larger unit that can produce plenty of heat, but requires a larger (very expensive) loop field to function correctly. To address these questions, I’ve created a video tutorial using a sample project to walkthrough the comparison. Read past the break for full details and join HeatSpring on facebook to keep the most up to date on free courses, events, tips, resources and news. If you’re a clean energy professional and looking to connect with other geothermal professionals to collaborate on jobs or best practices, request to join HeatSpring’s linkedin group for Clean Energy Professionals

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July 5th, 2011|Categories: Building Science, Heat Pumps|Tags: , , , , , |
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4-Step Guide to Designing Geothermal Systems

The first part to understanding any aspect of the geothermal industry, whether it be marketing, sales, design or installation is to understand how the technology works and it is designed. By understanding the design process, even if you are never going to do design yourself, you will better understand how the technology is sold, will be confident when speaking to customers, will know what information needs to be collected on a site visit, and which leads have greater potential then others. If you plan on working on the installation side, understanding design will give you the knowledge to understand the different parts of an installation and what those may cost.
If you’re new to the geothermal heat pump industry, read the Geothermal 101 Reading list. It has free tools and articles on geothermal design and installation and sales and marketing best practices. Here are some other free resources:

Free Mini-Course: Installing & Commissioning Real Time Geothermal Monitoring Systems

Article: Lessons Learned on Ground Loop Sizing from 100,000+ Hours of Real-Time Geothermal Monitoring Data

Article: Lessons Learned on Operating COPs from 100,000+ Hours of Real-Time Geothermal Data

Article: Performance-Based Contracting is the Future of Residential Geothermal
Here are the four basic steps to geothermal heat pump design. For this article, we’ll focus on a single-family residential building.
4 Steps

Heat Loss/Gain Calculations
Size Heat Pump
Size Loop Field
Size Air/Water Distribution Center

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June 29th, 2011|Categories: Biomass, Building Science, Geothermal and Solar Design and Installation Tips, Geothermal Heat Pumps|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |
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Five Key Items for Writing a Solid Renewable Energy Sales Proposal

If you’re currently a contractor and interested in entering or expanding your business into the renewable energy industry, there are four main hurdles you will face.

Understanding the technology. See this free course to learn more about the technology basics.
Filling out a vast amount of government paperwork, and maneuvering around solar and geothermal permitting and incentives.
Marketing: Getting the attention of potential customers to sign your first project. Here are some tips on bringing customers to you.
Sales: Needing to convince property owner to purchase geothermal or solar AND buy them from you.

Today, lets focus on number four. Like it or not, investing in renewable energy is NOT something that property owners MUST do, and they have other options to choose from. With that in mind, having good sales skills is key to convincing a potential customer that investing in renewable energy will be both profitable and attractive for their home or business. So, you must convince them to invest into solar pv, geothermal, solar thermal or energy efficiency and then convince them to pick YOU as the contractor.

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June 8th, 2011|Categories: Building Science|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |
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How You Can Use Geothermal To Gain LEED Certification

Here is an excerpt from a white paper I just published on how and where a ground source heat pump can be utilized to gain LEED certification.

By now, nearly everyone has at least heard of LEED but not many understand what it means to be LEED-certified or how best to earn certification. Developed by the US Green Building Council (USGBC), LEED stands for “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design”. Simply put, LEED is a grading system for sustainable building design and construction.

The goal of the program is to encourage the construction of buildings that use less energy, water and natural resources in order to minimize the impact of a structure on the local environment during construction and throughout its useful life. Needless to say, geothermal heating and cooling systems can go a long way to supporting all of these goals.

The LEED rating system works by requiring a minimum level of performance through prerequisites organized under eight different categories. Once you are able to meet the minimum performance requirements in each category, any improvements above and beyond are rewarded through a points system. The eight categories are:

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June 6th, 2011|Categories: Building Science, Certification|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |
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