HeatSpring instructor, Dr. Al Koenig, discusses the promise of standing column well geothermal systems in this three minute video. This short video was taken from Dr. Koenig’s ‘Standing Column Wells for Geothermal Professionals’ course.
As the video starts, Al is talking about the market potential for standing column wells. An audience question raises concern about ‘bleeding’, […]
The first episode of HeatSprint TV, known as HS TV from now on, is live! In the first episode of HS TV, I discuss 5 current new stories of importance and welcomed our first guest, Jamie from S+H Construction. We discuss being a general contractor and getting into the renewable energy industry. The conversation spanned policy, sales, Jamie’s perspective on job creation in clean energy, and what the developments he’s most excited about in the industry. 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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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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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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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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