Shine Energy Systems Geothermal Blog

We’ve attached the text of the story from the Houston Today newspaper below. My only comment is that when a geothermal project is “pulled apart” in to many parts and awarded to various suppliers and contractors, the conflicts have a better chance of arising. Geothermal is a system, and as such there has to be good communication between everyone involved to ensure optimization is in place. Granted, it is difficult to forecast everything that could go wrong, but the contracts should have dispute resolutions within them.

Original post.

Watchdog accuses council of wasting money

Published: August 20, 2008 5:00 AM A watchdog group and a fired driller are questioning whether Houston council is throwing money down the drain at the Houston Leisure Facility.

Don McLean, Gary Thompson and Dave Jellett of Taxpayers for Houston Group held a meeting last Tuesday questioning why the District decided to stop and re-tender the geothermal project. The group also questioned an alleged discharge of 70 gallons per minute of water from the Houston Leisure Facility to the grounds behind the building for the geothermal heating system.

Kelowna’s Brian Tostenson of Tostenson Construction Ltd., the driller originally hired for the geothermal project’s borehole drilling, said the discharged chlorinated water has a substantial dollar cost to Houston taxpayers.

“The city is paying x amount of dollars everyday to chlorinate water, pump water and dispose of water, just to lip that geothermal system on,” Tostenson said. “…It’s a red herring. It’s a whole separate issue, but it’s huge. Why is this allowed?”

The District emphatically denies that the water being discharged from the Leisure Facility is chlorinated, however, they agree that it is a major concern and one motivation behind finishing the project quickly.

“It’s connected to the municipal water system,” Shawn Wells, District of Houston CAO said. “That situation has existed since August of 2006, so that’s not a new thing… The urgency of getting a new contractor and getting that work completed is that we have to have that discharge ceased by the end of the year.”

Tostenson said was taken off of the project by the District after the one-and-a-quarter inch pipe that the District supplied broke in four of the eight holes that he drilled.

The District approached Tostenson with a five-day deadline to return to Houston to attempt to make the pipe work in the holes, but Tostenson didn’t return because he had already consulted industry experts regarding the viability of using the estimated $50,000 worth of pipe. That pipe, he said, was deemed unsuitable for the project.

“The five days came and I didn’t show up and then around the beginning of this month they gave me another five days notice and that gave them the right to cancel the project 100 per cent,” Tostenson said. “Now they’re re-tendering it but using the same pipe.”

The driller said the engineer hired by the District to oversee the project, Jeff Quibell, who, in a July 8 letter to Stephen Hohner, Houston public works director, outlined the issue of the pipe separating as it was pulled through the boreholes. Quibell suggested switching to two-inch pipe to resolve the problem. However, the District was not willing to pay for the upgraded pipe.

“The only [solution] [Jeff Quibell] came up with was to go from one-and-a-quarter-inch pipe to two inches, but the District isn’t even listening to their own engineer,” Tostenson said.

Wells acknowledges the letter, but insists that much correspondence between their hired experts has happened since then and it is outdated information.

“Anyone who’s using that information to review the project is light years behind where we are right now,” Wells said.

Wells cites Tostenson’s “non-performance” as the reason for his termination.

“We contracted with [Tostenson] to have that work completed by July 15, 2008 and it was not completed by that date,” Wells said.

The cost of an alleged $80,000 in drill bits that the District purchased for the project was also a heated topic for the taxpayers group.

“Because we’re in a termination situation with that contractor we’re not at liberty to discuss [the drill bits] because it was the specifications of that contract and unlike other people, we handle our business in a… proper manner,” Wells said.

Tostenson, who was not involved in the original purchase of the pipe, said he has invested $30,000 in the project that he was to be paid $250,000 for and has yet to receive any compensation.

“I believe whatever we need to pay for the contract will be paid,” Mayor Sharon Smith said. “Whatever’s worked out as far as expenses will be covered. We always meet our obligations and will continue to do so.”

Bidding for the new contract on the project closed Aug. 13 and on Aug. 15 council selected Kamloops Auguring and Boring Ltd. to install the directional drilled borehole heat exchangers at an estimated cost of $764,750 and an estimated maximum cost of $955,000. The total budget for the geothermal project is set at $2.9 million.

We lay pipe in trenches all the time.  Anything involving working in trenches greater than 4′ deep would involve shoring or other safety measures.  This would make our work very expensive and very slow, so we do the next best thing.

We pull the pipe out along the top of the trench, drop it in, and use an extended handle “hook” to move it to the spacing we require.  We then use sandbags to hold the pipe in place.  WCB would likely point out the fall hazard as well, but we still have not figured out how to lay out pipe without actually being there.

CANADIAN GEOEXCHANGE COALITION WARNS OF CONTRACTOR MISREPRESENTATION IN GEOEXCHANGE INDUSTRY

Direct link to press release.

Montreal August 14, 2008 – The Canadian GeoExchange Coalition (CGC), Canada’s industry association for ground source heat pump technology, is warning homeowners and municipal governments about heat pump contractors who have taken or will take advantage of consumers during this fall construction season.

CGC has found that many non-specialist contractors in both the Canada and the United States have misrepresented their abilities and qualifications to design and install geoexchange (a.k.a. ground-source heat pump) systems in the past three years. This misrepresentation includes promises to deliver subsidies; that systems are designed / installed in accordance with Standards & Codes; that contractors are adequately qualified, insured,and / or allowed to work in their province; promises that systems will achieve a certain dollar savings; and promises that systems are fully compliant and permitted with municipalities and provincial building authorities.

CGC Accredited professionals have had proper training and supervised field experience, have had their documentation checked, and agreed in writing to follow the industry code of conduct. An arbitration mechanism exists for consumers within the national quality program, and CGC Accredited professionals may be de-accredited and/or referred to the authorities as appropriate based on written consumer complaints.

CGC Accredited Installers and / or Designers will provide a CGC Accreditation Identification Card bearing a number beginning with ACC-IN (for installers) or ACC-DE (for designers), which can then be checked against the CGC website’s registry of accredited professionals, found at http://www.geo-exchange.ca. Any other identification, including a training certificate or an ‘accreditation’ card issued by an international organization are not valid for the purpose of seeking CGC full system certification as they are not adequate to satisfy program standards.

While Federal and many provincial incentives require CGC System Certification, CGC reminds consumers that CGC System Certification is the reliable way to add assurance that the system is built in compliance with CAN/CSA C-448-04 Design and installation of Earth Energy Systems by reputable professionals.

CGC has already issued various warnings to consumers about contractors who are not CGC Accredited. CGC is issuing this warning because of ongoing industry concerns about shoddy workmanship by non-accredited installers in particular. Consumers should be especially cautious of contractors holding or promoting other credentials which are not as rigorous.

Further, following numerous consumer requests from the United States, CGC suggests that American consumers seeking the highest commitment to ethics and quality in contractors also insist on hiring CGC Accredited professionals. CGC runs the only comprehensive quality program in North America for this technology. To avoid under-qualified and unscrupulous contractors, consumers and municipalities should only work with CGC Accredited Installers, CGC Accredited Designers, and CGC Qualified firms. Consumers and municipalities should insist that all geoexchange work done within their jurisdiction be CGC Certified Systems.

We have not blogged in quite some time as we are in the midst of a busy installation period.  Here are just a few photos of the sites showing how different the installation process can be for each site.

For Site 1: This is a photo showing the trenching layout designed to maintain the trees existing on site.

Site 1 had some sandy water, so we’re running it through the filter on our purge cart prior to pressurizing the system for leak testing.

Site 2 is a textbook case for geothermal installation: plenty of space, not a rock to be found, and easy digging.

Site 2 showing the header lines running through the footing to the future location of the mechanical room.  Note there are 4 pipes as there are two units (radiant and forced air).

Site 3 is different in that we went for a pit installation to best fit the property constraints.

Site 3 showing off the perfect pressure test score.

British Columbia’s new carbon tax comes in effect on July 1st.

As part of the new tax plan, carbon-based fuels — including gasoline, diesel, natural gas, propane, coal and home heating fuel — will be taxed at $10 per tonne of greenhouse gases generated, starting July 1, 2008.

That will translate into a new 2.4 cents per litre tax on gasoline at the pump and 2.8 cents per litre for home heating fuel.

The carbon tax rate will rise by $5 a year for the next four years, until it hits $30 per tonne of greenhouse gas generated in 2012, said Taylor.

 

CBC, February 20, 2008

The provincial government will be offering a $100 Climate Action Dividend. The first (of hopefully many) rebates should be arriving in every persons mailbox in the weeks leading up to July 1st. So I’ve come up with the ‘Top Ten Things to do with your Rebate’.

10. Buy yourself a tank of gas or diesel. You’re being taxed on it, so the extra 2.4 cents/litre (for now) might just find its way back to you (maybe).

9. Buy a gym membership at your local gym for a couple of months. You can practice riding a bike and running (to prepare yourself for 2012, when the tax reaches 7.2 cents/litre).

8. Buy a bus pass. It’s cheap and frequent.

7. Donate it to your preferred charity, or to research for sustainable/clean energy.

6. Spend it on home repairs (such as weather stripping, or low-energy light bulbs) to save you even more money.

5. Buy a used bike for you or someone in your family. You’ll be ahead of the game when gas prices increase yet more.

4. Buy some plants and trees for your home or garden.

3. Go camping with friends and family, and enjoy nature. If this tax is for saving the environment, the rebate should be for enjoying it.

2. Buy and start a compost. Check out this compost guide for information on how to do this.

And my number one thing to do with your rebate…

1. Get together with some like-minded people, pool all your rebates, and start a organic garden in your community. Choose native crops to your area. For a month-by-month overview of the community garden process, check out foodshare.

Author Jacob, is a 3rd Year UBC Mechanical Engineering Student who has joined us for the summer. This is part of his homework:-).

August 17 update - Note that there are now a few more designers in the province.

I had thought it was just a delay in updating the website at CGC (our governing body), but it turns out I am only the second accredited small system (residential) designer in BC.

Keep in mind, we can design for just about any location, weather, and so forth. It just turns out CGC has divided us up by our home province.

So, why hire an accredited designer?

• Peace of mind in knowing you have someone that knows what they’re doing.
• Your geothermal will be certified by CGC and abide by all required standards and regulations.
• There are ethical standards (as well as a Code of Ethics as a P.Eng.) for CGC members.
• Your system will be eligible for rebates.

Blah, blah, blah…:-)   The simple fact is your geothermal system will work and work well!

From the large amount of installers taking their courses, I expect to see a lot more designers by the end of the summer.

The following 5 entries were drawn as winners of our free home energy assessment:

• Bonnie Ryde
• G. Martin
• Bob Fisher
• David Allen
• Ivan Huska

So, if you see your name here, give us a call and we’ll set up a time.

BC Provincial Rebate

The BC Government, has come out with the details of their provincial LiveSmart BC program. For the geothermal world, we are looking at a $1250 rebate for converting an existing heating/cooling system to geothermal.

The ecoENERGY program is still in operation, and a $3500 rebate is still available through it.

I’m pretty sure you can do the math:-).

The purge cart is over-powered and there isn’t necessarily an available source of pressurized water on some construction sites, so here’s a bucket pump we had constructed.

This is a nice portable method to pressurizing a closed loop installation.

The end connection allows us to pressurize through the P/T plugs on the system.

A couple of more photos showing details (so you can make your own):

All the pieces:

All our installations are either methanol or propylene glycol for the choice of antifreeze.   CSA requires the equipment to be labelled with the type and volume/percent of antifreeze.

On top of that, we add a little food dye to the antifreeze to help differentiate what we’ve installed:

• Nothing = water
• Red/pink = propylene glycol
• Green =  methanol