Commercial office buildings typically have predictable use patterns. Occupancy and lighting schedules are based on the work day. Ventilation rates are based on occupancy. Geo-Xergy can add value to the design of these buildings when we can work with the owner and design team to “engineer” the building loads to reduce the size and cost of the geothermal system and ground heat exchanger.
Live Chat
Commercial
Steinbach Credit Union, Winnipeg, MB
Status: Completed May, 2010
Brief description:
The Steinbach Credit Union building site had been “pre-loaded” several years before construction to allow the fill material to settle and compact naturally. This posed a problem for the construction of the vertical ground heat exchanger that had initially been designed for this facility.
Each of the boreholes would have to be connected to a supply and return line. This involved a significant amount of trenching that would have to be re-compacted at significant cost.
Detailed modeling of the ground heat exchanger (GHX) indicated that there was adequate space to install a ground heat exchanger in the clay overburden using horizontal directional drilling. Only a short trench was required to connect the GHX circuits to the supply and return runouts, eliminating the need for most of the site compaction.
Innovations:
The first commercial application of horizontal directionally drilling to install a ground heat exchanger.
Project Partners:
DSC Labs
Acton Library