January 2, 2009

GEOLOGIC HEATING SYSTEMS

Workers prepare to install a lake plate in Black Lake, near Perth, Ontario.

Prospects for Canada’s geothermal industry continue to heat up

KORKY KOROLUK

correspondent

We may be living in uncertain economic times, but firms working in the geothermal industry are optimistic that the buoyant sales growth they have enjoyed during the last year will continue, although some flattening of the sales curve may be in store.

“Preliminary reports indicate that the geoexchange industry is growing at between 40 per cent and 260 per cent depending on the region,” said Ted Kantrowitz, vice-president of the Canadian GeoExchange Coalition. “In Ontario, I think the highest profile report has been that heat pump sales have grown about 200 per cent this year.”

The coalition is the national trade association for manufacturers and installers of any of the devices that extract energy from the earth — through heat exchangers that can be installed vertically in boreholes, horizontally where space permits, or as loops installed in lakes or ponds.

Glenn Kaye, owner of Maritime Geothermal Ltd., the country’s largest manufacturer of heat pumps, concurs with Kantrowitz’s assessment.

“We’ve doubled our sales during this last year, and I think that if you talk to other companies, they’ll say the same thing.”

There are a couple of reasons, he said. One is that the mid-year spike in the price of oil made people energy conscious. And the concern about greenhouse gas emissions and their role in global climate change has people exploring possible alternative energy systems.

As these factors came into play, federal and provincial governments introduced its EcoEnergy grant program, he said. Under the program, the federal government will rebate $3,500 to buyers of ground- or lake-source heat pumps, or $500 to buyers of air-source heat pumps. Most provinces followed suit of varying sizes, he said. Ontario matches the federal amount so people can get as much as $7,000 back to help defray the high up-front costs that have, historically, acted as a curb on heat pump sales.

Those costs can be anywhere from around $5,000 to about $12,000. That’s for the outside work, which can involve such high-ticket items as drilling. The equipment installed in the house — heating, central air conditioning, and hot water—cost the same as they would for a conventional system.

Impressive though the percentage sales increase sounds, it is starting from a small base. In 2006, for example, the industry installed something over 3,000 units, generating revenue of $38 million. That was an increase of about 40 per cent over 2005. It was after this that increasing energy costs and climate-change concerns combined to boost sales.

Still, not everyone in the construction industry is familiar with the technology. That’s why some firms in the industry spend quite a bit of time giving workshops to explain the systems to building officials.

Geologic Heating Systems Inc., of Ottawa, for example, has worked closely with area conservation authorities to ensure that the principles of lake or pond loops is understood by them. They have also had meetings with the Eastern Ontario chapter of the Ontario Building Officials Association.

Geologic has recently installed a lake-plate system for a home near a lake near the town of Perth. A lake plate is a variation of a lake loop, that involves circulating refrigerant through a hollow, stainless steel structure contained within a frame, and mounted vertically in the water, with its top edge well below the surface. A lake loop typically uses high-density polyethylene piping.

The plate, said Geologic’s sales manager John Lobb, is connected to a heat exchanger in a geothermal unit which will generate enough heat for radiant floor heating and forced air heating as well as full cooling in the summer. As well, it will generate about 30 per cent of the home’s domestic hot water.

All that from a system rated at five tonnes (60,000 BTUs) and with a plate that is just two feet by 15 feet by about two inches thick.

Lobb is enthusiastic about the possibilities offered by systems using lake or pond loops, pointing to a couple of installations in the United States large enough for hospitals in the often inhospitable Midwestern winters.

Some geothermal installers do all the work themselves. Others subcontract such items as drilling, electrical, plumbing and sheet metal.

Lobb said his company subs only the drilling, “but our next capital expenditure will be to buy our own drill.”

He said he knows of jobs where there have been complaints about work done by subcontractors, and, because of that, he thinks that “every aspect of a job should be done and managed by one company, using their own people.”

Kantrowitz said that the coalition calls contractors when customer complaints arise in an attempt “to correct their behaviour and to offer solutions.”

This is vital, he said, because in order to stimulate further growth, “industry discipline will continue to be a key.”

“The better job contractors do at satisfying customers and providing the highest quality work possible in the most ethical manner possible at the fairest prices possible, the better our technology’s reputation becomes and the faster our industry will grow.”

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