Mechanical Feature
Canada ‘Lab’ Becomes
a Veritable Thermal Energy
Dynamometer*
Three things that Haliburton, Ontario doesn’t lack are water, cottages near water,
and cold weather. Like much of Canada, the area is known for pristine wilderness,
wide expanses of forest, and some of the purest fresh water on the planet.
Wh en Dav e Hath e rton, CEO of system connected to a state-of-the-art
Next Energy, a geothermal distributorship, geothermal system.
decided to build a lakeside cottage three
Water to water…to water
years ago, he took it upon himself to create the
ultimate geothermal playground. “I wanted to “The cottage and shops sit about 100 feet
from the lake,” said Hatherton. “With the
see just how efficient a geothermal system can
be,” said Hatherton, also one of the founding ease and low cost of installing a lake loop,
there was no reason to even consider another
fathers of IGSPA and GEO.
means of geothermal exchange.” Because
“Since my wife and I have done much of the
of an extremely tight building envelope, and
work ourselves, only now have all the pieces
the use of low temp radiant loops, the large
of the puzzle begun to come together. We’ve
home is
easily heated and cooled by a four‑ton
only just begun to see how substantial the
ClimateMaster Tranquility ® water-to‑water
energy savings are.”
unit connected to in-floor loops spaced
His 280-acre Ontario property is home to
a 30-acre lake, a 7,000 square foot cottage at five‑inch centers.
An additional three-ton ClimateMaster
and two detached shop buildings, each about
1,200 square feet in size. All of the buildings Tranquility 27 water-to-air unit with ClimaDry
are maximally insulated, while being entirely handles summer humidity and supplemental
heated and cooled by an in-floor radiant cooling. The ductwork, in-floor system and
*(Dy-na-mom-e-ter: an instrument for measuring mechanical force) 32
Canadian Journal of Green Building & Design
cottage lake loop work was performed by
Link Heating and Air Conditioning Limited,
based in East Beaverton.
“Humidity control is extremely important
any time in-floor cooling is on a job,” said
Chris Link, owner of Link Heating +AC. “If
it weren’t for the unit with ClimaDry, Dave’s
floors would sweat, ruining his hardwood and
making surfaces slippery. The ClimaDry unit
keeps the pipes from condensing.”
All three buildings are connected to their
own pond loop. The cottage exchange loop
is 2,400 lineal feet of inch-and-a-quarter
polyethylene pipe. Split into three circuits, the
pipe is zip-tied to a heavy rebar frame. Before
being trenched toward the cottage, the three
circuits come together at a two-inch header.
While Link employees were installing
the cottage loop, the process was used as a
All photos credit: Dave Hatherton
Mechanical Feature
dealer training event. A group of Next Energy
The lake reaches a depth of 28 feet at its
Under the cottage mechanical room is a
employees, as well as several local dealers, deepest, but the exchange loops rest at about 4,000-gallon, heavily insulated water tank,
came to participate in the event. Canada has 20 feet. Incoming water temperatures in the
used simply for storing geothermally produced
more surface area covered in water than any winter average 37 degrees. In the summer, BTUs. At night, when the cost of electric is
other nation on the planet. It goes without
loop temps never exceed 75 degrees.
six cents per kWh, the four-ton unit extracts
saying; installing a lake loop is a good skill
According to Hatherton, only one loop
energy from the lake, and through the use
for Canadian geothermal installers to possess. remains uninstalled. Currently, a desuperheater of a nine-ton copper heat exchanger, dumps
The geo-exchange for the second shop’s
on the cottage’s main unit supplies some of
the energy into the storage tank. During the
three-ton ClimateMaster unit is a plate-type
the domestic hot water. But Hatherton wants day, when electric is 15 cents, the only energy
Slim Jim unit. “My wife and I installed that loop
his entire domestic supply to be geo-powered. consumed is used to power circulators.
ourselves one winter,” said Hatherton. “We
In the meantime, there is another system
During the day, BTUs flow from the tank,
actually had to drive around on the ice with supplementing the domestic hot water supply. through the heat exchanger (with the use
of three-way valves) and through the low
an Argo amphibious vehicle, breaking it up to
Cold water supply to the water heater passes
get the frame in the water.”
through a copper multipath pipe, which wraps
temperature in-floor loops. During the summer,
Continuing with the geothermal laboratory around the drains to the showers in the home. the unit dispels BTUs into the lake, and stores
theme, Hatherton wanted to mix it up when
It picks up heath from the shower water and
chilled water in the subterranean tank, ready
planning the geoexchange systems for the
feeds the hot water tank.
for circulation in the morning.
outbuildings. So, for the second shop, with a
“It has a 50 percent efficiency with 110°
“We never have to run more than 85 degree
geo unit identical to the first shop, a different shower water and a supply water temp of 50°,” water through the floor,” said Hatherton.
means of exchange was used. Instead of said Hatherton. “Why throw that energy away?” “There’s so much thermal mass in the floor
coiling pipe on a frame, a boat was used to
and walls, that on most winter days, the indoor
stretch 1,700 feet of pipe out into the lake. Thermally Massive
air temperature never changes more than five
Once the lines were purged of air and filled “I wanted to be able to use all off-peak electric degrees even if we don’t run the system at
to run geothermal heat pumps,” said Hatherton. all.” The design temperature for the impressive
with a mix of ethanol and water, they simply
“But to do that, I had to get creative.”
sank to the bottom of the lake.
system is -12 degrees.
The basement slab starts with four inches
of rigid foam insulation, with an R-value of 25.
On top of the insulation, six inches of concrete
wraps the PEX tubing, which is spaced at
five‑inch intervals.
The walls of the basement are even thicker.
Four inches of foam insulation is sandwiched
between two layers of concrete; four inches
on the outside and seven inches inside.
On the first and second floors, PEX tubing is
set in two inches of gypcrete, and covered by
two-inch thick reclaimed barn boards. Most
of the tubing in the cottage is 3/8 inch, but
for the large loops, such as the great room,
½ inch was used.
Canadian Journal of Green Building & Design
33
The two-by-six walls are spray-foamed for
a total R-value of 35. The vaulted ceilings,
with the same Icynene insulation, come in
at R-60. Triple pane windows, a steel roof,
and an exterior clad in 42,000, twice-dipped
cedar shingles top off the impressive building
envelope.
“With our long, harsh winters and stifling
humid summers, a traditional HVAC system
would cost us $12,000 to $15,000 a year to
operate,” said Hatherton. “Our utility bills are
now only $2,000 a year, and we’re still not
finished with the work of reducing energy
consumption.”
The two shops don’t lack the attention to
State of the art controls
thermal detail demonstrated in the cottage. “Another major piece to the puzzle is the
The slabs are R-25, four-inch foam insulation control system. We can monitor and control
covered in 10 inches of concrete. Around the all 22 zones for in-floor and airflow. So there
perimeter of each slab, a layer of R-14 foam are, in reality, 44 zones being controlled
prevents BTU migration from the slab. Again, based on occupancy, humidity, in-floor and
PEX tubing is spaced five inches on center air temps,” said Hatherton. “Through the
in the slab.
control system, all the data can be compiled
In another quasi-experiment, Hatherton and analyzed to optimize the system to
insulated the walls of the first shop with
take advantage of time‑of-use rates without
blown-in cellulose insulation, floor and ceiling. compromising comfort.”
The second shop is wrapped in six-inch Rock
“Knowing the system is relatively complex,
Wool batting.
I picked the best people I knew of to install
the controls,” said Hatherton. “What use is the
most efficient technology in the world if it’s
not operating to its full potential?”
Over an 18 month period, Automated Logic
designed and installed the control system in the
home. It compliments the load-sharing and BTU
storage capabilities of the geothermal system.
“The Hathertons can change setting on their
cottage system from anywhere with an internet
connection, including mobile devices,” said
Steve Martin, president of Automated Logic’s
Canadian division.
“One of the most unique things about the
HVAC system is its ability to respond to weather
conditions and electric rates,” continued Martin.
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34
Canadian Journal of Green Building & Design
If local weather information suggests a drastic
drop of temperature in the winter, or a heat
wave coming in a day or two in the summer,
the system responds accordingly.
Several days before the weather shift, the
system will start either heating or cooling the
home, fully utilizing the massive BTU storage
capacity in the floor, walls, and storage tank.
When the harsh conditions arrive, the system
won’t be maxed out trying to catch up.
The controls system also couples with the
thermal mass of the home to save money
on electric, even beyond the capability of a
‘normal’ geothermal system. It’s the controls
system that allows Hatherton to use mainly
off-peak power.
Geothermal background
“My wife and I go way back to 1980 with
geothermal in Canada,” said Hatherton. “Dan
Ellis and I founded a major brand in the US
ground-source market, and we worked with it
from 1983 -1995.” A few years later, Hatherton –
teamed with Dan Ellis, now president of
ClimateMaster; John Bailey, senior VP, sales and
marketing; and Oklahoma State University’s
Jim Bose - began the formation of the IGSPA
Committee, plowing the way for the entire
ground-source industry.
“I did consulting for utility companies and
worked for a rep firm before deciding to set out
my own again in 1998,” said Hatherton. Now,
after only 13 years, his company, Next Energy,
is one of ClimateMaster’s largest distributors.
From its’ headquarters in Elmira, Ontario,
the firm covers all of Canada, with nearly
250 dealers taking delivery of geo equipment.
“Until this year, we used to focus on
the residential market,” said Travis Schmidt,
Next Energy’s marketing manager. “At the end
of last year, the Federal Eco-Energy program
stopped, really constricting the residential
market. Now our business is evenly split
between residential and commercial work.”
With a long career focused on improving
geothermal performance and awareness,
Hatherton has been able to tap all his
experience during the construction phases
at the lakeside estate. It’s an accumulation of
the knowledge and know-how he’s acquired
along the way.
“The project has been a blast,” said
Hatherton. “If there were such a thing as a
dynamometer for geothermal power, this
property would be it. My wife, Fran, and
I recently sold NextEnergy, so hopefully we’ll
have plenty of time to enjoy the fruit of our
labors at the cottage.”
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