Building & Powering an Award-Winning Net Zero Energy Home Can a home be beautiful, powered entirely by solar energy, use sustainable heating and cooling systems and save it’s owners roughly $3,500 a year? Why, yes it can. Just ask Joanne Coons, who built her award winning, single-family, Net Zero Energy… Continue reading “Building & Powering an Award-Winning Net Zero Energy Home”
Deep Boreholes in GSHP Systems: Pressure Considerations & Installation Practices Factors such as space limitations are forcing engineers to utilize deep boreholes to meet design requirements for Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) systems. In such cases, hydrostatic pressures must be considered to ensure successful installation can take place. This short… Continue reading “Deep Boreholes in GSHP Systems: Pressure Considerations & Installation Practices”
Geothermal HVAC Design: From Building Loads to Bore Field Design Learn geothermal HVAC design fundamentals, with emphasis on building load (residential, commercial and institutional) development, leading to bore field specification. Watch Al’s lectures (one introductory, the other highly technical), and download a Geothermal HVAC Design Performance Simulator excel file in… Continue reading “Geothermal HVAC Design: From Building Loads to Bore Field Design”
John Siegenthaler Investigates: Low Ambient Air-to-Water Heat Pumps Low Ambient Air-to-Water Heat Pumps: An emerging renewable heat source for North American hydronic systems. Electrically powered heat pumps, in many varieties, are destined to play an increasingly important role in heating and cooling buildings around the world. Heat pumps capture… Continue reading “John Siegenthaler Investigates: Low Ambient Air-to-Water Heat Pumps”
3 Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) System Design Questions Expert Instructor Ryan Carda discusses vertical boring systems, horizontal ground loops and Energy Recovery Ventilator ducting on the IGSHPA Certified GeoExchange Designer (CGD Plus) Training discussion board… Student 1: Would you say that the addition costs associated with vertical boring are greater than the cost… Continue reading “3 Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) System Design Questions”
NYC Sets Precedent for Requiring Geothermal Certifications The New York City Council recently passed local law 0609-A-2015 stating that all new city buildings or city-owned buildings undergoing a HVAC retrofit must use geothermal if the ‘geothermal system has the lowest net present value of all alternatives considered.’ This legislation is… Continue reading “NYC Sets Precedent for Requiring Geothermal Certifications”
10 Reasons to Use LoopLink PRO 10 Reasons to Use LoopLink PRO by Doug Carruthers Looplink PRO is simple, powerful, web-based ground loop design software you can use for just $50/month. Specifically engineered for commercial geothermal designers, LoopLink PRO can handle projects from simple single building… Continue reading “10 Reasons to Use LoopLink PRO”
Commercial Geothermal Heat Pump System Design Enroll in HeatSpring’s free Commercial Geothermal Heat Pump System Design course today! In this free course, Dr. Charles Remund, author of the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association (IGSHPA) Design Manual, explains how to design a ground heat exchanger for a commercial… Continue reading “Commercial Geothermal Heat Pump System Design”
Leaders in High Performance Building: Best Green Energy Efficient Custom Home of 2015 At HeatSpring, we celebrate innovative builders and designers who work to improve the overall quality and performance of public and residential buildings… Our Leaders in High Performance Building Giveaway was created for those who have helped plan, design, construct, and/or operate a high performance building. Entrants… Continue reading “Leaders in High Performance Building: Best Green Energy Efficient Custom Home of 2015”
Free Antifreeze Volume Calculator for Geothermal Loopfields Ryan Carda, P.E. is the author of the International Ground Source Heat Pump’s official design and installation guide. Carda’s Antifreeze Volume Calculator for Geothermal Loopfields free tool is used in his Entry Level Geothermal Professional Certificate Training. Here’s what the tool looks like: Uses:… Continue reading “Free Antifreeze Volume Calculator for Geothermal Loopfields”
How New England Can Eliminate Oil Use For Single Family Homes for Less Than We’re Spending on Solar PV I first published this post in Renewable Energy World and it received a lot of comments, mostly getting into all the silly technical details of geothermal and not addressing how to implement policy to eliminate oil use. My hope is… Continue reading “How New England Can Eliminate Oil Use For Single Family Homes for Less Than We’re Spending on Solar PV”
The Most Complete List of Commercial Geothermal Cost Data This is a list of the best resources I’ve been able to find for commercial and public geothermal projects. We need to be creating more case studies in order to reduce risk for property owners. By showing property owners, specifically… Continue reading “The Most Complete List of Commercial Geothermal Cost Data”
New England Geothermal Policy Update, Review, and Next Steps: Massachusetts This is the first piece on geothermal lobbying efforts that I’m completing in addition to other industry communications and research efforts. In the next few weeks, I’ll be publishing information on the current state of policy and next steps in… Continue reading “New England Geothermal Policy Update, Review, and Next Steps: Massachusetts”
Keeping Vermont on the Cutting Edge of Clean Energy and How You Can Get Involved Vermont has long been on the cutting edge of renewable energy and energy efficiency. They like to get stuff done, from solar permitting to efficiency and biomass. Two weeks ago, I spoke with executive director of Renewable Energy Vermont, Gabrielle… Continue reading “Keeping Vermont on the Cutting Edge of Clean Energy and How You Can Get Involved”
[Interview] Learnings from Ball State and the Largest Geothermal Project and What It means for Selling District Heating Geothermal A few months ago, I heard about the largest geothermal heat pump installation was breaking ground at Ball State University. Clearly, this is amazing project that could change the whole industry. Also, I always noticed PR for huge solar PV… Continue reading “[Interview] Learnings from Ball State and the Largest Geothermal Project and What It means for Selling District Heating Geothermal”
The Coolest, Most Bad%ss, Great Geothermal Marketing Video Ever Made Thanks to Energy Smart Alternatives for creating this video and posting it on twitter, where I found it, while I was stalking you. To give credit where credit is due, Love’s Geothermal down in Maryland also has an amazing “story… Continue reading “The Coolest, Most Bad%ss, Great Geothermal Marketing Video Ever Made”
“What’s the Most Efficient?” Geo VS Solar Thermal VS Solar PV I’m doing some sales consulting work in NYC, and there’s one question I’m getting a lot from property owners: “What is the most efficient renewable energy technology?” In the city, they are mainly speaking of solar PV vs solar thermal,… Continue reading ““What’s the Most Efficient?” Geo VS Solar Thermal VS Solar PV”
Geothermal Loop Design: Series vs Parallel Flow Path Analysis When designing geothermal ground loops, this is an issue that a lot of people get hung up on. Because of the advantages of, we use parallel circuits in ground loops almost exclusively in our industry. Read more to hear why. When loops are tied… Continue reading “Geothermal Loop Design: Series vs Parallel Flow Path Analysis”
What You Need to know About Quoting and Selling Standing Column Well Systems It’s much easier to answer this question for residential applications. The price is composed of three pieces: the drilling cost, the loop field installation including underground piping to/from the building, and the HVAC system installation. Many times the driller is… Continue reading “What You Need to know About Quoting and Selling Standing Column Well Systems”
13 Steps to Basic Geothermal Standing Column Well Design HeatSpring Instructor Albert Koenig discusses the 13 steps to basic Geothermal Standing Column Well (SCW) Design… Unlike closed loop geothermal installations, open loop systems, in particular, standing column well (SCW), require more diligence from the designer than just the well… Continue reading “13 Steps to Basic Geothermal Standing Column Well Design”