Despite expense, says Lewoniuk , the energy yield is high and cost-efficient. "It's a far better household investment than say a hot-tub or fancy triple pane glass windows," and he believes Albertans a lagging behind the rest of Canada. Alberta's geothermal reticence is based on lack of knowledge, says Lewoniuk , "The supply chain in building management starts with contractors and are entrenched in gas works in Alberta. It may begin to change now that Natural Resources Canada put earth and geothermal energy on the official list of renewable energy sources in Canada."
Jeremy Jacob operates Exchangenergy from Pender Street offices in Vancouver and Duncan, B.C., on Vancouver Island. Jacob says, "GeoExchange systems moves the Earth’s energy into a residential or commercial space using ground or water heat exchangers and heat pump technology. By moving heat instead of producing it through of combustion or electrical heat, we can acheive heating efficiencies of over 500%. GeoExchange systems work with both forced air and radiant floors. Many of our clients prefer radiant floors for their comfortable heat effect. Adding a Heat Recovery Ventilator gives greatly improved indoor air quality.
Jacob says, "The industry allows systems that use a ground heat exchanger sized for 70% of the building load, but we design systems to run on geothermal 100% of the time without using supplementary heat. We've found that 100% ground loops suffer none of the 'loop degradation' seen on some partial systems." Time has proven geothermal heat exchange and heat pumps require low maintenance and have the lowest life cycle costs of any other home heating methods.
The atmosphere of living conditions is vastly improved by the use of this technology, "We are control system experts and use careful integration of system elements with an intelligent control system strategy to optimize performance of a GeoExchange heat pump. Solar panels, swimming pools, domestic hot water, air conditioning - depending on the requirements, we can design the best strategy to balance these loads to get the most efficient system."
The folks at Integrity Mechanical, in Vancouver, B.C., liken geothermal to a juggling act of amazing proportions, "It's like bringing ten trades together in one smooth and efficient operation," says Scott Miller, the principle, "including several forms of hydronics and circuitry, pumps and heat exchangers." The array is engineered and then installed by excavators or drillers, plumbers and pipe-fitters, heat pump installers, and the process is monitored by regulators. Scott works with solar thermal panels to drench the fluid in solar heat to increase ground heat in the geothermal array.
"These solar panels resemble photovoltaic panels but are different because they circulate fluids through panels and can be directed by a series of valves from a mechanical room to feed heat to the geothermal pipes," says Rob Pope, sales manager at Integrity Mechanical. No electrical generation is involved in the thermal solar installation and hot water heat is used in a variety of ways." Geothermal is typically installed on new construction and solar panels are usually 4 feet by 8 feet. "We can supply green energy with huge cost efficiencies to institutions like schools and administrative centres and health clinics and community facilities."
Polar Refrigeration in Prince George, B.C., installed the NEXT Energy systems with a horizontal array at the McLeod Lake Indian Band, which is a Tse'Khene community that lies up Highway 97N on the way from Prince George to Mackenzie. "They installed it into the administration building a couple of years ago at the main community of the McLeod Lake Band, 150 kilometres north of Prince George," says Dez, of Polar Refrigeration. McLeod Lake Band is an industrious group of over 450 members. The community is presently establishing new Indian Reserve properties in Mackenzie and Bear Lake. As these reserves are developed and housing constructed it is expected more than the present 150 band members will move back to Indian Reserve lands. Innovations like geothermal may be in the offing for new developments.
Parkland Geothermal, Derwin Joelson, President, is a CGC certified NextEnergy dealer in northern and central Saskatchewan. Joelson believes in geothermal is the only way to go in Saskatchewan. The limited availability of natural gas in rural areas combined with costs of propane and oil (or the labour intensive task of providing enough wood as a source of heat in winter months) should only confirm his beliefs.
"Most clients are those who do not have access to natural gas or those who are looking for a more cost efficient heating system in the long run," says Joelson. Compared to conventional heating and cooling systems, geothermal systems have a higher initial cost but lower operating and maintenance costs. "When considering a heating system, we should compare not only initial costs but we must include on-going costs such as fuel, maintenance, and replacement."
Geothermal system should be viewed as a long term investment that can mean substantial savings within several years of installation, Joelson says, "The number of incentives and grants available along with the many advantages of a geothermal system and many," including; low maintenance, free air conditioning, comfortable interior environment with cleaner air, hot water, humidity control, and green energy. "This should only convince everyone that geothermal is the answer."
Sonic Drilling is a company built on highly functional innovations in drilling that so happen to work optimally on geothermal drilling jobs. With a host of drill and drill head patents Sonic Drilling also manufacturers a line of drills for export to countries all around the world. The company operates in the high-end of the industrial economy by drilling for cost-efficient energy solutions and manufacturers of sonic drills and drill heads.
Ray Roussy patented a super-performing sonic drill that has won awards in geothermal efficiency from the Canadian Geo-Exchange Coalition. Roussy's company Sonic Drilling succeeded in commercializing a sonic drill rig that bores 3-5 times faster (depending on soil conditions), "without using any drilling mud and is able to provide continuous core samples to depths of more than 300 ft. (100 meters)." As a result of these amazing attributes, sonic drilling can be employed in many applications including geo-technical and geothermal projects, environmental investigations, and mineral exploration, with a marked specialty in drilling and sampling for aggregate materials like gravel and for sampling environmental remediation conditions around the province.
Bill Fitzgerald is the General Manager of Sonic Drilling, and Fitzgerald says, "We sell the drills around the world and employ our own fleet of drill rigs in Canada on a contract basis across the country. We do a lot of environmental drilling for remediation projects and we explore for minerals, and we have a specialization in geothermal holes. We do all kinds of drilling but generally we do the exploratory, environmental, and geothermal holes."
Fitzgerald says, "Our work in drilling in Canada is 90 percent geothermal and 10 percent environmental. It used to be opposite. And we do a lot of work providing core samples for mineral exploration," and they leave a very clean site when the job is done. He explains geothermal drilling comes in two sizes, 5 inch or 6 inch diameter. "These holes provides the width to put in the piping, one inch or one and a quarter inch polyethylene straight down 150 to 200 feet. The loop is made at the bottom and grouting fills the hole," a heat conducive mixture that increases the heat sensitivity in the loop.