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Continued from opening page
standards for environmentally sustainable
construction. Since its inception in 1994, LEED has grown to encompass over 6,000 projects in 28
countries covering 1 billion square feet of development area.
At
the request of the task force group, Mr. Koenig prepared a
sample projection of a geothermal system comparable to one of
the projected new Henderson County schools. This
projection is based on a hypothetical 25,000 sq. ft. building
with 280 students and staff.
Assumptions:
|
Building Size |
25,000 Sq. Ft. |
|
Occupancy |
280
Students and Staff |
|
Hot
Water Usage |
10
gal. per person
hand washing, cafeteria dish washing, etc. |
|
Solar Installation |
100
thermal absorbers using 4,500 sq. ft. of roof
space |
|
Storage |
5,000 gal. of smart storage & high efficience
back-up boiler |
|
Estimated Production |
652
kBtu/hr (based on weather data)
1,459 MBtu of energy per year |
Savings compared to natural gas
using conventional system |
17,500 cu. yds. of natural gas
not burned |
Carbon Dioxide
Emission Reduction |
62,000 lbs. per year
not produced |
Operational Savings
assuming $2/cu.yd. (1 therm) |
$35,000 per year
not paid |
|
Est. Cost of Thermal System |
$300,000 - $350,000 |
|
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"The sample system would provide ~
90% of the assumed domestic hot water consumption of the school
and still have spare energy to provide up to 10% for the
heating," said Mr. Koenig. "The energy produced would yield ~
$35,000 a year in savings and should pay for itself in less than
ten years. Additional savings can be achieved if energy smart
strategies can be implemented, and the thermal solar energy can
assist in the cooling of the building," he continued.
Other system scenarios, he said, in combination with or without
thermal solar, can be evaluated - such as geothermal for heating
and cooling - better heating distribution concepts by means of
radiant heating tubing in the slabs versus hot air distribution.
There is a wide variety of successful solar energy implementation
in existing buildings and new construction.
Sustainable energy concepts require local energy sources such as
renewable energy sources like solar, said Mr Koenig. "One
fact that cannot be valued high enough is that solar energy
based systems replace carbon dioxide producing systems at no
extra cost." We have no way of measuring the
cost of the carbon dioxide emissions that result from standard
systems. We do not measure the cost to
our environment and to our children.
This article written by Gary Prichard in
consultation with Tomas Koenig
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Mission Statement
The Global Warming Task Force of Henderson County is a nonpartisan and
nonprofit organization, working to find solutions toward reducing carbon dioxide
emissions and pollution. The Task Force seeks to encourage informed and active
participation of citizens in their government and to influence public policy
through education and advocacy.
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