Ottawa's GeoThermal Heating & Cooling Company, Phone: 613-839-0033

Geologic Heating Systems Joins Ottawa Carleton Home Builders Association View Full Story Minimize

July 20, 2010 | GeoLogic
Geologic Heating Systems is one of Ottawa's leading specialists in renewable energy HVAC products. Geologic Heating Systems is one of Ottawa's leading specialists in renewable energy HVAC products. Geologic's President, Peter Baker, a HVAC veteran with 28 years experience, was general manager of Dearie Contracting Ottawa. He was responsible for designing and installing thousands of HVAC systems throughout eastern Ontario prior to founding Geologic. Now, with Geologic entering its 5th year of operations, the company and its products has been featured on the Weather Network, the CBC National news and CTV and has established itself as the largest installer of Canadian-made Geothermal products in all of Ontario.

Heating and cooling costs with geothermal are typically 40 to 70% less than non-geothermal systems. In addition, they offer improved comfort. A properly designed and installed system will deliver more even heat throughout the structure and is able to provide domestic hot water as well as hydronic hot water for radiant floor heating. Although the up-front costs of installing a geothermal system are higher that of a conventional heating and cooling system, substantial annual savings will begin to accrue immediately. Further savings are also realized in annual maintenance and in the units’ ability to provide essentially free supplementary domestic hot water.

Another unique aspect of Geologics operations is their ability to operate in many places where conventional geothermal is prohibitive due to restrictive lot sizes or rocky terrain. Geologic specializes in “urban geothermal” techniques and uses patented equipment to deal with many of these conditions.

Geologic Heating Systems has been involved in numerous high profile projects in eastern Ontario and has also been recognized for their work installing Maritime Geothermal “direct expansion” systems. A direct expansion system is considered the most efficient closed-loop geothermal system available and the technology was recently approved by the CSA . Recently, Geologic was contracted by Natural Resources Canada to install a direct expansion loop system at the NRCan Bells Corners facility. Their conventional geothermal equipment was also chosen for the new RCMP offices located at the Connaught ranges in west Ottawa.

For more information about Geothermal, Geo-Exchange and other renewable energy systems for residential and commercial heating and cooling please call 613-839-0033 or log on to www. Greenchoice.ca. Geologics office and show room is located at 2133 Carp road, 200 feet south of the 417 highway. Contact Person: John Lobb, VP. Phone 613-839-0033.

Daily construction News article about Geologics DX Systems View Full Story Minimize

July 20, 2010 | DCN Correspondant Writer William Koroluc
Heat pump industry gets direct expansion technology Gas-based technology wins CSA, federal agency approval The Canadian geothermal industry got a boost recently with the announcement that heat pumps employing a technology called direct expansion now qualify for grant money under the federal EcoEnergy program. The program specifies that to qualify for grants, geothermal systems must comply with CSA standard C-448. That posed a problem for manufacturers and suppliers of direct expansion systems because they had been excluded from the standard. However, after an intensive effort by the industry, the Canadian Standards Association amended C-448 to include direct expansion systems, and Natural Resources Canada followed that with the announcement that those systems would qualify for EcoEnergy grants. The grant program runs until the spring of 2011. Denis Tanguay, president of the Canadian GeoExchange Coalition, the industry’s trade association, said he is pleased with the announcement. But, he added, “it has always been and always will be a puzzle as to why this particular technology was explicitly excluded from the C-448 standard.” Direct expansion, or DX, systems were developed in Canada and are sold in other countries as well. They use a gaseous refrigerant instead of glycol in their ground loops, which are made of copper instead of high-density polyethylene. They require no circulating pump, and are often more efficient than conventional heat-pump systems. As well, the boreholes needed are much shallower than those required by other ground-source systems. Regulations dictate that people working with refrigerants be certified refrigeration technicians. DX installers, therefore, must have a refrigeration ticket, not just a geothermal installers’ course. With DX systems excluded from the grant program, sales suffered, Tanguay said, and “many contractors have suffered financially” as a result. But with grants now available, he said he expected sales to improve. That would seem to be borne out by the experience of Geologic Heating, an Ottawa installer of all kinds of heat pump systems, including DX. John Lobb, the company’s vice-president and director of marketing, said three confirmed DX system orders were received within minutes of the announcement that they would qualify for grants. Geologic has also done commercial installations, including one for an RCMP training building in Ottawa. That job, Lobb said, was a DX system with three pumps using 12 loops that were installed under the parking lot. His firm has also installed a DX unit at NRCan’s Ottawa campus so that researchers there can use it to assess some new portable power units. (See picture at link above) Grants and rebates for approved geothermal installations in Ontario can exceed $10,000 for each residential unit. Geothermal contractors say using their systems for heating and cooling will usually save somewhere close to 50 per cent in annual operation costs. The International Ground Source Heat Pumps Association calls geothermal technology one of the most efficient residential heating and cooling systems available, with heating efficiencies 50 to 70 per cent higher than other heating systems, and cooling efficiencies 20 to 40 per cent higher than conventional air conditioners. Still, the geothermal industry has failed thus far to capture the public imagination or the investment dollars that solar and wind power have. It still represents less than one per cent of the residential market, largely because of high up-front costs. Residential installations totalled about $85 million in 2007, Tanguay said, and 2008 showed an increase of about 65 per cent. He suggested that might represent about half the total installations, but could provide no figures for commercial installations because they weren’t part of the EcoEnergy program, and so were not certified by his association. Direct comparisons are difficult, he said, “because commercial installations usually mean more than one pump.” “As an example, a university campus might be a single project, but it might involve installation of 65 pumps.”>>

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