A Belleville-based heating and cooling company has been honored for the second year in a row for being a pioneer in an energy efficient, environmentally friendly method of climate control.

Sigman Heating and Cooling got a Quality Home Comfort Award from Contracting Business magazine for its use of geothermal air conditioning and heating systems in homes and businesses.

"Geothermal heating and cooling has been around for 20 years or so, but not many people know about it," said John Sigman, owner of the company that bears his name. "But with heating fuel prices at record highs, I think it is going to become very popular.

Sigman won the award because of "the company's commitment to quality and innovative ability to provide and install state-of-the-art geothermal systems," according to Ron Rajecki, executive editor of Contracting Business.

Geothermal heating systems use the warmth of soil to heat water that is then circulated throughout radiant pipes in the floor of a house, office or factory. They can even be run beneath pavement to melt snow in a driveway or on a sidewalk. Pipes that are run 70 feet deep below the surface tap 55-degree soil temperatures to provide cooling in the summer.

In addition to several houses, Sigman installed the system in a new Little Caesar's pizza restaurant in Belleville to cool the heat from the ovens indoors and to melt snow in the drive-through lane outside.

"In a pizza restaurant, the ovens are on all the time," said Belleville Little Caesar's owner Mike Haar. "Even in the winter, we have the air conditioner on. So, I wanted to have something that was going to be as energy efficient as possible."

"It costs a little more to put in a geothermal system," said Sigman sales manager Joel Sigman. "But it is considerably cheaper to operate than a system that uses propane or natural gas."

When it is installed in new construction, it costs about $4,000 a ton for a geothermal system, compared with $2,500 to $3,000 a ton for a good conventional heating and cooling system.

"Rates have gone up so much, Joel Sigman said. "With propane, you will get your investment back in about three years. With natural gas, it's about five years. That's a 15-25 percent return on your investment. I don't think someone could make an investment in anything besides real estate that they could get such a big return so quickly."

John Sigman said his company got into the geothermal market about 12 years ago when a customer asked about it.

Back then, only about 2 percent of homes and businesses used the energy efficient heating and cooling method," John Sigman said. "Today, it's still less than 10 percent. There is definitely a lot of room to grow, and I think this is the way of the future."