Not really, according to Einstein – we all have more energy than we can release in a lifetime.

E is Einstein Energy Quotion in joules
M is Mass measured in kilograms
C is the Speed of Light – approximate 300,000,000 meters per second

My mass is 77.18 kilograms (becoming marginally less daily – separate topic of latent success)

According to Albert Einstein, I am the container for 6.95 x 10 to the 18th, e+18, that is eighteen place holding zeros. 6,950,000,000,000,000,000.

This converts to the equivalent of 1.9e+12 kilowatt hours. See Formularian.org for other equivalent conversions.

According to the US Energy Information Administration, “In 2008, the “average” nuclear power plant generated about 12.4 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh). “

Taking these calculations out one more level – I am the carrier of 155 nuclear power plants. (If my Microsoft Excel math is right.)

Apparently I do have enough potential energy.

Data points collectedaily: House electrical consumption, geothermal system consumption (has its own meter ), average temperature, heating/cooling degree days.

Data benchmarks: Last year’s monthly daily average electrical consumption and average temperature.

Calculated data: daily electrical consumption – house, geo & total, difference from last year, average, sum, cost and standardeviation.

SUMMARY
October 6 – 31, 2008
Geo KW 580
Geo Cost $57.85
Oil Equivalent $220.37 (at the contract rate)
For oil to be competitive, the price per gallon would have to be $1.22

A week from today, hosting an open house for interested parties. Most of the neighborhood, some beyond.

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IMG00001, originally uploaded by Zeus Ocean Storm.

Great shot and a great way to share with me while I was 30 something miles away. This was back before this corner of the backyard was turned into a quagmire of drilling sludge and water.

Time to share some up and down sides of geothermal. There are more ups than downs. All through the process I’ve been waiting to discover and accept the downsides.

Downside #1. The upfront costs are necessarily substantial. There are three expensive stages to this project.

1. Drill three wells to 260 feet in depth. then install circulating loops. This stage has the potential to escalate in a hurry and by the foot. The desired outcome is to have ledge close by. This reduces the amount of casing that is needed. Each foot of casing beyond the estimated cost is $16 a foot. The well driller estimated ledge at five feet. My basement is deeper than that and no ledge was involved. Fortunately, he wasn’t far enough off to make a difference. Granite ledge was found fourteen feet deep.

2. Retrofitting the house with HVAC ventilation ductwork. Traditional New England homes use baseboard heat. Geothermal does not generate adequate heat for the baseboard system. Also, baseboard heat does not do air conditioning. The basement is easy to install the duct work into. One central vent down the spine of the basement with side vents over to each window for coverage. Attic access was the challenge. Fortunately, there are stacked closets adjacent to the stairwells. A bit of coat closet and walk-in closet space will be lost to the attic heading ductwork. Once in the attic, duct work is routed to ceiling vents. The room above the garage is a problematic challenge. Not much room for duct work access…..to be determined.

3. The furnace and control systems. Two zones, upstairs and downstairs. There may be supplemental electrical work done has well.

Downside #2. The waterfurnace compressor requires 118 cranking amps. Running power requirements are less. This is why supplemental electrical work may be needed. Also, this impacts generator backup. Any generator for power outages needs 118A plus overhead capacity. This is beyond your typical emergency back-up power solution. An industrial grade solution is required. Installation costs are on the other side of $20k. Easy solution, keep the existing oil fired furnace in place. It runs off of the existing back-up power solution. Run furnace occassionally enough to keep it in at ready condition. This also will provide supplemental heat for the room above the garage – that is on its own furnace zone.

Upside #1. Near total elimination from oil dependency for heating the house during the stern Maine winters.

Upside #2. 3-400 percent efficiency. For every one unit of energy consumed running the system, three to four units of energy are released.

Upside #3. Central Heating and AIR CONDITIONING

Upside #4. Carbon footprint reduction.

Upside #5. Quiet operation.

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Third well going in, originally uploaded by Zeus Ocean Storm.

A lot has been going on over the past week since returning from vacation.

About a week ago, the waterfurnace was delivered. 5 ton capacity. Weight of about 500 pounds. The contractor strengthened my cellar steps to ensure they wouldn’t collapse under the load. Three additional boxes of ancillary equipment came along as well.

Met with the sheet metal contractor and installation contractor. Sited furnace and backboard wall location.

Made and installed the backboard wall myself. Brief Saturday project.

Yesterday and today, the well drillers have been on site. Three wells drilled to 266 feet. Circulating loops installed. Ruts in the backyard. Granite mud from drilling through ledge covers the the back corner of the backyard. Sheet metal guy shows up for final measurements to fabricate the duct works.

Tomorrow, primary contractor on site to take the loops below grade and into basement.

Next week, duct work installation, electrical work completed, furnace connected, configured and checked out. Very concievably, this project may be done in about ten more days.

Visit My Flickr for more photos.

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Yes, in my back yard. The stake marks the center point for my three geothermal wells.

There has been an ongoing, justified, national dialogue on where we should be drilling for additional energy resources. The conversation typically focuses on off-shore drilling for oil. Typical, and not unexpectedly so, there are two distinct camps, NEVER v NOW.

The Nevers recall with great passion the faults of the past. Those faults have become the present lessons learned into best practices applied. Our fragile environment must be protected with robust, yet practical, methods. As is being done. The Nevers have a sub-fraction that involves view rights.

The Nows are really saying, we should have drilled five to ten years ago, and we would have less of a problem today. Well, today comes with every tomorrow, and eventually tomorrow will bring the exhaustion of nonrenewable resources.

Alternative energy resources, to state the obvious, are typically thought of as solar and wind. Another natural resource that is scarcely mentioned at all is geothermal. Right now, the sun is not shining enough yet (it’s 6:45 AM and the sun has yet to rise above my forest) to provide any effective renewable resource. The air is still, no wind turbine would be turning. But the ground has a constant stable temperature that with a water furnace aka heat pump, will yield residential heating, cooling and hot water preheating.

So Yes In My Back Yard. Grant me access to this renewable resource in such a way that is fully sustainable, always yielding an energy resource that will never be exhausted, will be always present, in my back yard. Visit My Flickr for pictures as the project progresses.

The drilling starts Wednesday, September 3, 2008.

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System design features – three wells to 266 feet. Five ton water furnace, Installation to start after Labor Day. Installation completion – by, in and around the end of the month.

I ask for referrals, get two who are willing to talk about their recent installations. The following questions were asked, with answers briefly summarized.

1. Why did you choose to go to geothermal? To quit paying the escalating cost of fuel oil.

2. Would you do it again? Yes

3. What would you do differently? Have central heat and air ducting installed into the house when built, not as a retrofit project.

4. How did the installation go? Smoothly, AH – the contractor is on his game. Reliable support, communications, follow-up – a true quality job. The most recent installation took only two weeks from start to completion.

5. How is the system working so far? Better than expected.

Common caveat. None have yet to experience a winter season of heating. However, we each and all have a high degree of confidence in the expected successful results. The Canadians and Europeans have been doing this for years. But only time will tell.

Both, well all three of us, are looking further toward using solar for the electrical supply. Totally, natural, sustainable, non-polluting.

Tomorrow – sign for the home equity loan extension. Have more than enough available credit to fund the project.

Soon – sign the contract, with a 25% down payment.

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We met with the distributor week before last. His role in the process is to design a system that meets our needed capacity. For a 2500 square foot colonial, two stories, full basement and a finished bonus room over the garage: 4 ton system with 3 wells. He then sent this design off to an authorized installer in my local region.

On Monday, the local paper publishes an article about the need to regulate geothermal installations – vaguely citing failed installation – one with salt water contamination, another with ground water freon contamination. You can read this article titled Tackling risks of thermal systems Portland Press Herald website.

The article says nothing on the tremendous green potential of geothermal. Instead, it may serve to perpetuate false fears. Specifically, the staff graphic that shows “cold refrigerant” circulating through the ground loops. As I understand, this is old and obsolete technology for a reason. That reason being, water works, water is safe, water will be circulating through my system. Reading between the lines and the readers comments online reveals what is being left unsaid. Beyond public safety is the realization that the government can’t tax free energy. That my friends is reason enough to get even more off and away from the grid.

By mid-week, the authorized installer calls me. To work up an improved working quote, he needs to know the depth to bedrock. Since I do already have a well, this data may be stamped into the well cap. The depth to bedrock shows how much well casing will be needed, and is a significant cost $16 or $32 per foot. So I get home, pull the lighthouse off of the well cap, exterminate the ants nest, pull off the well cap, and find the data fields – empty. Fortunately authorized installer has experience with this situation and has a Plan B at the ready. Using maps of my local area that identify bedrock depths, he can guess with experience.

By late week, we coordinate the site visit for mid next week. Besides the excitement is the trepidation of extending my home equity line of credit. NOW! After all, credit these days is extended only to well qualified borrowers.

I get on the phone, apply for the extension online. Due to the new true due diligence of the home loan business, an appraisal is required. It is completed in a brief twenty minutes Saturday morning. We walk through the house and point out all the home improvements completed in the past eight years. I anticipate no problems.

Thunderumbling, time to go. Next update by midmonth!

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The tag line is true at best conditions. Typical traditional systems yield 70% energy efficiency. Geothermal systems typicaly offer 300% efficiency. All things considered and your mileage will vary.

Well, we met with our regional distributor yesterday. The working numbers look good. Good enough that the next stage will be system design. Once design is approved, move on towards installation contractor. The ROI is going to be about ten years. More or less dependent on other evolving and devolving economic factors to be determined.

So the macro view looks like:
Design approval concurrent with financing approval – neither expected to become problematic.

Contractor selection – the recommended guy is two town’s away – need to get into his schedule ASAP.

Ductwork installation and vertical ground loop bore hole drilling technically can occur concurrently.

System installation – connecting the water furnace between the ground loop and the ductwork.

Connect the domestic hotwater system, which included disconnection from the existing oil fired furnace

Turn on, test, fine tune and place into operation.

Leave the oil fired furnace on stand by for the first season of operation.

OTHER RESOURCES
International Ground Source Heat Pump Association (IGSHPA)

US Department of Energy

DSIRE is a comprehensive source of information on state, local, utility, and federal incentives that promote renewable energy and energy efficiency.
This here is where the situtation becomes strangely curious. The tax incentives for geothermal are pretty much nonexistent. This for a clean power source that reduces the demand for fossil fuels. Why is that? It’s quite simple from the government standpoint – you can’t tax free energy. Also, the upfront installation costs, while seemingly prohibitive, but not if you take the long view, are beyond the government’s interest to even remotely subsidize, reward or encourage. You can’t tax freedom from the addiction to oil. The government is not interested.

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Wild Thing II with BigBlue, originally uploaded by Zeus Ocean Storm.

However, that being said. The 2005 Chevrolet Silverado 4×4 2500HD with the 8.1L engine spends more of its time in the yard than on the road. It’s the first vehicle I’ve ever had where the warranty ran out of time before it ran out of miles. It is a sturdy workhorse for its intended purpose, providing horsepower for RV’ing adventures. Has passed lesser vehicles going uphill, while under load. Over the past three years, the average MPG indicates 888 gallons of gas consumed.

The commute vehicle, gets 52-56 PMPG, on many and most days. That’s Passenger Miles Per Gallon. Yes, I carpool for my commute. For the past two years, the average MPG indicates 838 gallons of gas consumed.

But wait, there is more. Annually, according to my heating oil provider, 900 gallons of fuel oil is consumed to heat the house and the water. This is my next action item, get off and out of using nonrenewable heating system. Geothermal is my targeted source. Fully natural, not even really renewable in the true sense of the world. Using the naturally stable temperature of the deeper earth, pump heat out in the winter, pump heat back in the summer. If I add enough solar panels, with battery storage systems; once my initial investment is recovered, except for necessary servicing routines, the heating and cooling become essentially free.

What I envision is replacing my fuel oil furnace with a geothermal/heat pump system. This may involve ripping out all the existing radiators (baseboard), and replacing them with ducted central air. There are bonuses involved, besides selling off the copper piping. I will have both central heat and central air conditioning.

Concurrent with this system upgrade, I will also be adding solar panels, wind generator, and probably battery storage systems.

The concept is sound. The feasibility study now begins.