Buffalo Geothermal Wins Top Job

Buffalo Geothermal Heating Wins NY-GEO ‘Top Job’ Award

The objective of the GeoStar Top Job Competition is to highlight and recognize the incredible talent, creativity and imagination that exists in geothermal system designers and installers. An additional aim is to communicate to those outside the industry the variety of ways that geothermal heat pump technology can be applied. Our job switched 72 low-income apartments in Western New York from electric baseboard heating to 100% geothermal heating, cooling and domestic hot water using shared closed loop fields. Read more.

Image result for top job award buffalo geothermal

“The capstone of the two-day event continues to be the “Top-Job” competition. Among the entries included the impressive St. Patrick’s Cathedral geothermal conversion in Manhattan and the William F. Buck Middle School conversion from the public city water mains in Valley Stream, New York.

With such an impressive list of entries, the decision was difficult for the panel of judges. The 72-unit Lockport Housing Authority geothermal conversion won the day. Jens Ponikau of Buffalo Geothermal in Cheektowaga, New York, worked closely with the housing authority to convert the facility with a small footprint on time and on budget.” – theNEWS

NYS Politicians Support Renewable Energy

NYS Senator Patrick Gallivan, Senator Robert Ortt and Assemblyman Sean Ryan Gather at Local Business to Support Renewable Energy

“I am very proud to be here [Buffalo Geothermal] and stand up for something that is good for one of our local businesses,” boasted Senator Patrick Gallivan​. “A local business that had the foresight to look ahead and see what they could do different, what they could do that would help consumers, what they could do that would help the economy and they put together a very successful model.” Local politicians support renewable energy.

The program allows homeowners, small businesses and not-for-profits to finance energy efficiency improvements through a charge on their utility bill. The program takes January 1, 2018.

“It is a win-win for the pocketbook and it is a win-win for the environment. We are here to announce there is one more item on your menu when you are thinking of replacing or changing. your heating and cooling system.”

Explained by State Assemblyman Sean Ryan, one of the bill’s sponsors.

Politicians at Buffalo Geothermal Showroom

Buffalo Geothermal​ offers the highest quality geothermal heating & cooling installations. Reasonable prices + the best experience. Call 716-684-8848 to learn more. www.buffalogeothermalheating.com​ – Go green to save green! If you would like more information about this topic, please email: [email protected]

Lockport Housing Authority: ASHRAE

The official peer reviewed Journal of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE)

When the Lockport Housing Authority converted their Office Building in 2014 from gas to geothermal, it set two goals for us as a contractor:

  1. Ensure the highest possible comfort to their employees
  2. Ensure the highest possible efficiency of the geothermal system

The conversion gave us a unique opportunity to compare the energy impact of the geothermal system The monthly energy data was provided by the Housing Authority, and ASHRAE scrutinized everything through 3 peer reviewers in the process.

The data was normalized for the roof insulation upgrade and the weather, excluding all the cociding factors. The geo system reduced normalized natural gas consumption from 160,537 kWh (537 Million BTUs) in 2013 to 1,436 kWh in 2015. Normalized electricity consumption increased in 2015 by 13,666 kWh, so the geo system provided the space conditioning with 8.5% of the energy of the previous system. This was not only due to the higher efficiency of the geo system in heating, but also due to the significantly reduced electrical consumption during air conditioning season. In addition, the older furnaces and boilers were not operating at their nameplate efficiency between 70-85%, but between 50-60%, and also consumed significant energy for blower and pumping power not accounted for in the AFUE ratings. Thus the entire site’s energy was reduced by 60% through the installation of the geo system. In addition, the entire site is now free of emissions with the exception of the weekly test run of the emergency generators.

This is an important peer reviewed case study of the energy impact of a geothermal conversion from fossil fuel based heating (and conventional A/C) to geothermal, and indirectly the impact on carbon emissions.

READ THE ARTICLE HERE

Jay Scott, the Editor in Chief of the ASHRAE journal, wrote an editorial on the article, and highlighted the significance of the fact that the data was collected during the polar vortex winter of 2015, with February of 2015 being the coldest month on record, and where the geo system did not use any supplemental electric heat.

In the editorial Mr Scott pointed out that:

“The project has proven significant because the new system handled extreme cold conditions in 2015 while supporting New York state’s carbon reduction goals and reducing summer peak-electricity consumption.”

This article went out to the 50,000 ASHRAE engineering members worldwide. We are glad it highlights NYS leadership role in designing and building ultra efficient geothermal systems, to reduce carbon emissions, and we are glad we could exemplify in a case study how this could be achieved.

READ THE EDITORIAL HERE