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Geothermal
options get attention in Lakes Region By
GEOFF CUNNINGHAM Jr.
While
the option has not fully caught on in the Lakes Region, rising fuel
costs have prompted people to look to the ground when it comes to
heating both homes and municipal buildings.
Imagine installing a heating system that uses no oil or gas but, rather,
combines a looped pipe under the earth with a water solution to draw the
earth's natural heat into a home through the use of a pump.
It may sound like science fiction but for people like Mo Gouin of
Meredith, it has been a primary source of heat for more than a decade,
allowing them to shrug off the repeated news of hikes in crude oil
prices that currently have home heating oil hovering around $3.20 per
gallon, much to the dismay of those using conventional boilers. (Click
here to read full article)
Crude forms of geothermal heating have been around since the 1930s and
many countries in
Europe
are far ahead of the
United States
in harnessing the earth's warmth to heat buildings. However, people in
the
United States
and, particularly, in
New England
are beginning to take a closer look at such systems. Several
Boston-based academic institutions already use geothermal systems,
including
Harvard
University
.
Geothermal heating systems draw warmth from the earth using a series of
pipes, called a loop, installed beneath the ground. A water solution
circulated through the piping takes the earth's natural warmth to a heat
pump inside a building where it is circulated through a space using
interior ductwork.
In the winter, it heats, and, in the summer, the process can be reversed
so that the heat is extracted from the air inside a house and
transferred to the earth, with the same looping pipe system, thus
creating air conditioning.
Companies installing such systems cite federal Environmental Protection
Agency numbers that show that geothermal systems operate at 75 percent
greater efficiency than oil furnaces, 48 percent greater efficiency than
gas furnaces and 40 percent more efficiency than air source heat pumps.
The savings are not lost on Gouin, a 73-year-old, semi-retired plumber
from Meredith who has been installing such systems since 1985. Gouin,
recognizable from his place with Gouin and Sons Plumbing in
Laconia
, has been heating his home via geothermal power for 22 years and he
swears by the method from both a cost and a maintenance perspective.
"For every dollar of electricity that you spend, you get $4 of
heat," explained Gouin.
Gouin said the systems are not wildly popular in the Lakes Region and he
has installed only about a dozen or so here during his time working on
them, but he did put one in famed skier Bode Miller's home near Bretton
Woods Ski Area.
The longtime plumber said he knows first-hand the benefits of geothermal
power, having had systems in both his current home and in a residence he
lived in on
Lake
Winnisquam
for 17 years. He said he spent a total of $165 in maintenance over that
period for the system in his old home and is enjoying low fuel costs,
thanks to the system that currently heats his five-zone,
4,600-square-foot home for about seven cents per square foot. "It
costs about $320 a month [to heat the whole house] ... I was talking to
a gentleman at the lumber yard the other day who said he was spending
$800 in oil a month to heat his house, which is 1,800 [square
feet]," said Gouin.
Gouin said he is always looking for innovative ways of powering things,
whether it be his home heating system or the boat he uses to putt around
Winnisquam on. For him, geothermal power just makes sense. "I am an
environmentalist to a certain point, but I'm no tree-hugger. I like to
save money ... [ours] is a throwaway society," said Gouin.
It is for this reason that 70 percent of his energy comes "out of
the ground".
The idea has begun to catch on. When the leaders behind the
Prescott
Farm
Audubon
Center
in
Laconia
built their Samuel P. Pardoe building off
White Oaks Road
in 2005, they decided to go geothermal. Prescott Farm Executive Director
Scott Fitzpatrick said they love the system and noted that it has been
working well even on the coldest days. "We are very pleased from
the performance end, and maintenance is low. I think the key is getting
the units sized to the space you are trying to heat," explained
Fitzpatrick. The local
Audubon
Center
uses its geothermal system to heat about 4,000 square feet of space and
also to cool it during the summer months.
The only drawback is that such systems are said to cost significantly
more to install than conventional boilers; but Fitzpatrick is among
those who assured that the payback comes in not worrying about rising
fossil fuel costs. "You are almost doing a prebuy because they are
more costly than putting in an oil- or gas-fired system. I'm really glad
I'm not on oil right now because I don't see the cost of oil or propane
getting any cheaper," said Fitzpatrick. He said one key to using
geothermal or any heating system is building a "tight" and
energy-efficient building that does not lose heat quickly.
Geothermal power also is being considered as a viable option for those
looking for efficient heat in municipal buildings. In October, the
library trustees and the Friends of the Gilford Public Library decided
that their new building — currently under construction — will use a
geothermal system to provide both cooling and heating for the facility.
According to Public Service of New Hampshire, which was consulted by
both in making the heating decision, there is an average cost of $1.20
per square foot of space heated by conventional means, such as oil. In
comparison, the geothermal method has an average cost of 49 cents a
square foot of space heated.
In all, the geothermal cooling and heating will likely cost about
$100,000 more than what was budgeted for the conventional heating and
air conditioning systems, with about $60,000 of that initial cost coming
from the deep wells that must be dug to make way for the geothermal
system.
A geothermal heating system also has been considered for a potential
addition to the Gilford Police Station.
Article
reprinted with permission from the author.
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