Two PVC pipes protrude from a modest mound of dirt behind the Tinkling Springs Presbyterian Church. Soon, 29 more mounds of earth will dot the field, each one marking a well shaft.
Julian Moffett, an excavating contractor and chairman of the Fishersville congregation's building committee, is confident that tapping several hundred feet into the earth's crust will save the church money.
Without the glamor of solar panels or the dynamism of a wind turbine, geothermal energy is a well-kept secret in the Valley: The stealth player in fuel savings. Its users bank on the even, steady 50- to 60-degree temperature beneath the earth's surface.
Tinkling Spring's system was designed in concert with an ongoing expansion of the church sanctuary and will add "substantially" to its cost, Moffett said. But he's done the math. The estimated life of the system is 50 years instead of the six- to 10-year lifespan of a standard condenser unit.
He calculated that it would easily pay for itself within a decade, depending on fossil fuel prices.
"My grandparents went to this church," he said. "We're building for our grandchildren and their future. It's money well spent."
Cost savings have prompted other large users of energy to embrace geothermal systems. Tom Drake, the director of facilities for Rockbridge County schools, has overseen the conversion of three elementary schools from propane, natural gas and electric plants.
"We doubled the square footage at Fairfield Elementary in the summer of 2001, the same time we added geothermal," he said. "The utility bills only went up 1 or 2 percent."
Several Augusta County establishments have lowered utility bills by looking earthward, among them the Shenandoah Valley Water Co., Blue Ridge Community College's Administration of Justice building, and the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center in Verona.
The Richard Simmons Drilling Co. of Buchanan has crews devoted only to geothermal projects, including many in the Valley. Stephen Brooks, their coordinator, said that most of his clients are schools, colleges and military bases which need "long-term" energy solutions.
"(Geothermal systems) have minimum maintenance. We spec them out to have at least a 55-year life-span," he said. "In the last six months with fuel prices rising, everybody's wanting it."
For Moffett, it's just common sense.
"It's an interesting concept and a proven concept," Moffett said. "Geothermal is taking heat out of the ground or putting heat back into the ground."
For centuries, earth-bermed root cellars have protected carrots and cabbages from freezing and heat spoilage. Steady temperatures in unheated basements have long sheltered canned produce and meats.
The modern version at Tinkling Spring will make the most of heat-exchange technology to extract and concentrate heat from fluid that has moved through the 52-degree well field. The closed-loop system will circulate the cooled fluid back into the ground to soak up more heat.
In the summer, the fluid will gather the building's heat and move it underground.
"If you figure you want a 74 degree temperature year-round, you've only got to move it that 20-degree difference," Moffett said.
"Your heat exchangers aren't working as hard (as they would with outside air temperatures)."
It made sense to Bud Levin, who installed a geothermal heating and cooling system for his home along the Parkersburg Turnpike. The buried loops of pipe behind his house, the heat exchanger and ducting paid for themselves in energy savings in seven years.
"The first winter we paid $28 per month," he said. "It's the best financial investment I've ever made."
