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Retirement facilities are a popular choice for many of our aging family members. And, just like most households, our family members in retirement facilities have unique heating and cooling needs based on their own body chemistry and health. This is precisely why some healthcare retirement facilities provide each residential unit with independent heating and air-conditioning controls. Some of these facilities still use through-the-wall units that sit under the window to draw fresh air inside and emit CO2 outside. They are ugly, noisy, inefficient, costly, and pollute our environment. They’re not an advantage to anyone.

What other alternatives are there to regulate the heating and cooling environment in a retirement facility?

As an example, geothermal and hybrid geothermal systems can bring fresh air through rooftop units for enhanced residential comfort at less cost, reduced noise and with fewer harmful emissions. Why settle for a system that offers so many negatives when there is a choice that offers so much more – and costs less?

It’s true, as a hospital you can lower both gas and water consumption and decrease health damaging CO2 emissions. How? By simply incorporating optimized geothermal energy into your existing and new facilities. It’s that easy! As it is, healthcare costs and risks are high enough. No hospital wants to needlessly waste money on gas and water or emit harmful CO2 to heat and cool their facility. What’s the answer? Geothermal Energy. Geothermal systems solve these issues and more if employed and used properly. A recent study of energy use by 100 Midwestern hospitals found the average usage was at two dollars and thirty-nine cents per square foot per year. The best non-geothermal was at a rate of one dollar and fifty-one cents per square foot per year. However, geothermal was the most appealing, with a rate of ninety-four cents per square foot per year. It really doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see that incorporating geothermal systems into the operation of a hospital is a better economic and healthcare practice all the way around. Better energy use means time and money can be spent on things that really matter – like patient care. Geothermal certainly sounds like a life-saving change.

Our schools have the very challenging goal of providing our youth with more education using less money. Many schools are maximizing their education dollars by reducing their operating and maintenance costs. Unfortunately, this balance is not sustainable unless schools can deliver more cost-effective and efficient heating and cooling for the students, faculty, and staff. More and more school and district managers are realizing that they can drastically reduce their operating and maintenance budgets and increase their investment in education through geothermal energy. Greensleeves has been designing, monitoring and controlling hybrid geothermal systems in schools for years, while reducing the initial upfront costs, energy bills, ambient noise, carbon emissions and optimizing the learning environment for our children. Some universities have seen more than a 50% reduction in energy costs by using hybrid geothermal systems with optimization technology. Whether you are renovating, adding on, or building a new school, geothermal systems represent the best energy efficient and sustainable option available. Have you educated yourself on these benefits?

Once a decision has been made to replace or upgrade an outdated HVAC system, it is time choose a system that offers the most energy-efficient options.

Geothermal systems offer coefficients of performance between 3.4 – 6.0. That’s 340% to 600%! This is more efficient than any other HVAC system in the marketplace today.

In addition, geothermal systems:

• provide both heating and cooling
• are an endless renewable energy source
• are quieter than traditional HVAC systems
• have a longer lifespan
• require less maintenance when intelligent controls are included
• produce less CO2
• reduce energy costs

Make your renovation an investment by upgrading your outdated HVAC system to geothermal and start saving 30 – 50% on heating and cooling for the life of your building!

In many industries, there are rules of thumb that are followed. Are these rules, though, always the best method?

The Oxford dictionary defines “rule of thumb” as: A broadly accurate guide or principle, based on practice rather than theory.

The problem with rules of thumb in the geothermal industry is that they more often than not lead to wildly oversized or undersized borefield systems. Neither scenario will work effectively in the real world. Too much borefield equates to excessive capital expenditure and the project is rejected before it even starts. An undersized borefield may initially look attractive from a capital expense viewpoint but in short order the field will begin failing by either overheating or freezing of the ground.

The sound basis of geothermal design has three basic elements:

1.  an accurate energy model that simulates an entire year of operation – an 8760 energy model;

2.  a true understanding of geologic conditions from an on-site thermal response test, and;

3.  geothermal optimization design software.

Rules of thumb have no place in the commercial geothermal industry – they are a recipe for disaster. Engineers must base their designs on factual information and not a “broadly accurate guide or principal”. Do you understand why geothermal design elements are so important as opposed to just general “rules of thumb”?