Look to the Earth for answer to heat costs By Kirsti Marohn
Come rising fuel prices or tougher environmental regulations, St. Cloud's new housing project for veterans and the homeless won't feel the pinch.
That's because it will use a source of energy guaranteed to be reliable, less costly and friendlier to the environment: heat from the Earth itself.
The Al Loehr Veterans and Community Studio Apartments will feature a geothermal heating and cooling system. It's possibly the first public housing project in the country to use such a system, said Les Henson, community development director for theSt. Cloud Housing and Redevelopment Authority.
Geothermal energy refers to heat within the Earth, either from water or molten rock far below the surface. It's becoming more attractive to businesses, homeowners and others looking for an economical, greener energy source.
The $6 million St. Cloud facility is being built north of Apollo High School, between the VA Medical Center and the Minnesota Department of Transportation offices. Fifty-one percent of the 60 single-room apartments will be reserved for veterans.
Cost savings
The St. Cloud HRA decided to use a geothermal system primarily because of the heating and cooling costs it's expected to save — about $30,000 a year, Henson said.
The project will use 96 wells, averaging depths of 138 feet, said Mike Blaskowski, general manager of J-Berd Mechanical ofSt. Cloud, which is installing the system.
In the winter, the system will capture the Earth's heat and transfer it into the building, using fluid-filled pipes, he said. In the summer, the system removes the heat from the building and pumps it into the ground, Blaskowski said.
"The one thing about the Earth is it's always a constant temperature," Blaskowski said.
No water is removed from the ground, so there aren't negative environmental effects, he said.
In fact, there are some significant environmental benefits.
Almost 40 percent of all U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide are the result of using energy to heat, cool and provide hot water for buildings, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Carbon dioxide is a so-called greenhouse gas linked to global warming.
Geothermal systems have the lowest carbon-dioxide emissions of all of the technologies the department analyzed. They also have the lowest overall cost to the environment, the energy department reported.
There is one serious drawback: It costs a lot more money to install a geothermal system. For theSt. Cloud project, it amounted to about $400,000, or $300,000 more than a conventional system, Blaskowski said.
In the long run, that money will be made up through savings on heating and cooling bills, Blaskowski said.
Popularity
With oil and gas prices on the rise, geothermal systems have been getting more attention. J-Berd has bid as many geothermal systems during the past year as the past several years, Blaskowski said.
Geothermal systems are typically installed in larger buildings because of the extra land needed for the wells. But there's no reason a smaller office or home couldn't use one, Blaskowski said.
"You could do it for a dog house, if you want," he said.
Henson said the HRA will consider using geothermal in any future projects.
