VANCOUVER’S TOTAL ENERGY CONCEPTS, INC. offers an alternative to oil and gas-powered furnaces with geothermal units designed to be more efficient and use renewable geothermal energy.
With the cost of heating oil and natural gas continuing to fluctuate, homeowners are looking for cost-effective ways to keep their house warm in the winter and cool in the summer without breaking their budgets.
In his 22 years as president of Vancouver’s Total Energy Concepts, Inc. (TEC), John Lower has seen more home and business owners turn to alternate heat sources like geothermal power. He has also witnessed the use of recycled materials like newspaper to provide better insulation and keep energy costs low.
“Cellulose, essentially, is recycled newspaper that we use to fill in walls and it provides excellent insulation,” Lower said. “When you combine that with what the possibilities are with a geothermal system and people are genuinely surprised by how much difference it can make in terms of energy usage and costs.”
Geothermal power is sometimes confused with natural gas, but geothermal involves drilling a well to access the natural heat and water that exists in the ground and a heat exchanger is used to collect and supply power while a furnace supplies the water.
“There’s been decades of research done on geothermal and it’s a proven technology, which is very efficient and inexpensive by comparison to other power sources,” said Lower. “We’re also seeing businesses take a greater interest in geothermal to power their offices and buildings.”
One such example is in Portland where Total Energy Concepts installed a geothermal system in a three-story, 30,000-square-foot building in the heart of the city.
“We had to be especially careful because the owners were doing a historical restoration, but we were able to turn it into the most energy efficient building in the city and one of the few to get a LEEDS Platinum Certification,” said Lower. “In fact, there was an assessment done not too long ago to see how the building was holding up, and the efficiency is still very high, so we know it works.”
When it comes to homes, Lower said the common approach is to create a standing column well, between 200-300 feet in depth and use it to pump water and heat through the exchanger and supply both to the house.
“The great thing is that if you’re needing just the heat and not the water, the heat exchanger will separate it out and the system will recycle the water for when it’s needed,” Lower said.
One innovation that has helped the system become efficient was the introduction of variable-speed systems, which use complex microprocessors to monitor internal temperature with high accuracy.
“The system can detect a one-tenth-of-one-degree fluctuation in temperature and will adjust to either supply heat or cool air accordingly,” said Lower. “It can also do the same with water temperature, so it’s extremely versatile.”
Since the 1960s, when geothermal technology was first becoming practical for homes, Lower said a good year for Total Energy Concepts would be about 60 installs. Recently, he’s seen the demand for their systems climb to nearly 200 installs per year, with many homeowners taking out their oil or natural gas systems in the process.
“We’re finding that the more energy conscious homeowners don’t like to burn anything to power their homes,” said Lower. “It’s really picked up in the last four years however, as we’ve seen the cost of buying oil, natural gas and even propane spike to what it is now. More people are realizing just how many benefits geothermal has, even if it is a potentially-expensive system to install.”
Lower admitted that the average cost of a geothermal system for a home between 2,500-6,000 square feet can range between $40,000-$50,000. However, because the federal government is interested in getting homeowners to change to more sustainable power sources, those who do change over are eligible for a 30 percent tax credit for the total cost of the installation.
“What people don’t always understand is that the credit covers all the costs for the installation, which means because we usually have to tear up the yard to do an install, the cost of replacing it with a brand new one is part of what goes into the tax credit, so there can be quite a bit of money coming back to the homeowner when they file taxes the following year,” said Lower.
Another perk of the system is its lifespan, which is designed to last between 30-72 years under Environmental Protection Agency standards.
“We also guarantee the system will work for the first 10 years, so we make sure it works for the first decade, but it will essentially last for a lifetime,” said Lower.
With the federal government also calling for a 40 percent reduction in energy consumption across the board by 2016, geothermal systems are being considered the most practical alternative to traditional electrical or gas sources. While TEC works primarily in Washington and Oregon, Lower has spent the last few years working in Alaska as well, where interest is growing.
“I had a gentleman who owns and operates an 11,000-square-foot tourist spot in Alaska and he came to me looking to cut into the $30,000 he had to pay for five months of heating and powering it,” Lower said. “I showed him what we could do with geothermal and after we did the installation, his energy costs dropped to just $4,700 for the same five months. I think that says it all about what a difference geothermal can make.”
More information about the benefits of geothermal energy for homeowners, as well as details on installation and available models of furnaces can be found on Total Energy Concepts, Inc’s website, www.tecgeothermal.com.
Total Energy Concepts, Inc., is located at 6000 NE 88th St., in Vancouver. To schedule a consultation, call (360) 571-7002.
