Geothermal heating/cooling systems are no longer experimental, as the article below, excerpted from the Albuquerque Journal, clearly shows. Most people seem unaware that geothermal sources of energy can be used in many areas, not just where hot springs are located! Were you aware that geothermal options like this existed?
“Albuquerque Journal
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Community College using deep tubes to heat, cool site
By Rosalie Rayburn
Journal Staff Writer
Central New Mexico Community College is counting on the earth to heat and cool its first Rio Rancho campus building.
A Texas-based drilling company recently began boring a series of holes into the dirt on the construction site where CNM will house classrooms for nursing, computer, information technology and liberal arts courses.
The 300-feet-deep holes will carry a network of polyethylene tubes that will circulate water into the building. Engineers who designed the system determined that the earth’s temperature at that depth is a steady 68 degrees. Water circulating from the holes will help raise the building’s temperature on frigid winter days and lower it during the heat of summer.
CNM officials picked the geothermal temperature control system over conventional heating and cooling technology because it offers a cost effective way to avoid using fossil fuels, said Luis Campos, CNM’s director of physical plant.
Geothermal heating and cooling technology has been around for at least 30 years, but it’s gained popularity in recent years. The city halls in Rio Rancho and Las Cruces and the new V. Sue Cleveland High School all use geothermal systems, said Jeff Greenup of Loop Tech Inc.
Greenup is overseeing the Loop Tech crew that’s drilling the wells for the CNM building. Loop Tech has done drilling for geothermal systems throughout the Midwest and at several sites in New Mexico, including Las Cruces city hall and the new high school in Rio Rancho.”
This is for class… for people who don’t know abou it. Explain your reaction to the article as if you were new to the idea?
