Friday, August 26, 2005
For residents of Dennis E. Rieger Scholarship Hall, chances of a freezing bedroom in summer or stuffy common room in winter are complaints of the past.
A new geothermal heating and cooling system at Rieger Hall, 1300 block of Ohio, uses the power of Mother Nature by taking energy from the earth to keep the women of Rieger Hall cool.
“When it gets very hot outside it’s nice to have a space where you can actually sit and breathe without being terribly uncomfortable,” said Michelle Tran, Derby junior.
A state-of-the-art geothermal system keeps residents comfortable because it allows residents to control their own room with individual thermostats.
This system doesn’t require a big, noisy box that sits next to the house. Instead, it uses energy from the earth to transfer cool or hot air into the building. Eighteen wells, buried 400 feet beneath the ground, sit on the south side of the residence pumping air into the building. The pipes transfer the energy from the ground.
The pipes, which are filled with a solution that prevents them from freezing transfer energy from the ground to the building to provide hot and cool air to the rooms. It then takes the left-over energy back to the ground.
“The geothermal system is the only heating and cooling system that takes from the earth only what is needed,” said Alan Lankford, engineer of Lankford and Associates, the firm that designed the system. “It borrows stored up energy in the earth and gives it back when the season changes.”
When making the decision to install the geothermal system, the University looked at hospitals and schools in Kansas City, Mo. and Wichita that used the new system. “We were convinced that we wanted to try it after looking at the other units and that the long term costs will be lower so it will be worth the investment,” said Ken Stoner, director of student housing.
While the University is optimistic the unit will pay for itself in about seven years, the unit’s installation is much more costly than other systems. The cost differential between a standard heating and cooling system and the unit used at Rieger Hall is between $70,000 and $90,000, Stoner said.
The decision to install the system was not solely driven by its efficiency but also by the noise reduction it provides. The system makes no noise compared the system at GSP-Corbin Hall, which causes noise pollution.
Candice Davis, member of the Oread Neighborhood Association, said this system is much better compared to the system at GSP that she has complained about for years. She appreciates the effort by the University to get input from the neighborhood.
“In order to blend in with the neighborhood we wanted to be able to put in a system that was not only environmentally friendly and energy efficient, but also aesthetically pleasing to the neighbors,” Lankford said.
Those in the Oread neighborhood feel the University made the right decision by installing the geothermal unit.
“I just think it benefits the University, as well as the community and neighborhoods, to figure out ways to work together,” Davis said. With only 70 to 80 systems in use in the Lawrence and Kansas City area and with rising energy costs, Lankford said more geothermal units will be used in the future.
This system may be part of future projects planned for the University, Stoner said. That includes plans for another scholarship hall for men located north of Rieger Hall.
“This technology is coming. I think this is one of the technologies we will see more and more use of in the future,” he said.
—Edited by Patrick Ross
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