Cooling System For New RCMP Building To Be Examined

Wednesday, September 16, 2009 04:03 AM

Prince George, B.C.- There is yet another consideration for the yet to be started new RCMP building on Victoria Street .

The City has issued a request for proposals to examine the possibility of cooling the new facility geo-thermally.

The proposal has two parts. Part one would take about three weeks, and would be a “desk top review study” to determine if the aquifer would be suitable for a thermal energy system.

If the report on phase one comes back saying yes the aquifer can handle it and it is cost effective, then phase 2 kicks in.

Phase two would see drilling and well testing on site.

A major contractor in the Central Interior says the cost of geo- thermal, (which would have to be LEED approved) would be in the $500 thousand to a million dollar range. He says while it would save about $1100 dollars a month in cooling costs, it will take 25 years to pay off the initial construction cost so any benefits will be eaten up by interest payments. He suggests rather than spend the money on a geo thermal system, the City would be better off investing those dollars into the community energy system and have the new RCMP building heated using that system. He estimates the cost of a geo-thermal system for the new Duchess Park School is between $500 thousand to $800 thousand dollars.

The construction cost of the new RCMP building has not been nailed down, but at last guess, it could be as high as $46 million dollars.

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Posted on Wednesday, September 16, 2009 04:03 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: RRrabbitt on September 16 2009 7:34 AM

HEY !!!!!

OPEN A ##$%^&@@#$%^&!!'ing WINDOW !!!!

:-)

v.

Posted by: giterdun on September 16 2009 7:45 AM

25 Year payback and then it needs to be rebuilt....GOOD ECONOMICS!!!! Going Green will sink us.

Posted by: seamutt on September 16 2009 8:39 AM

Ya but its a feel good green project, doesn't matter what it costs.

Posted by: lunarguy on September 16 2009 9:02 AM

How come the first part of the article talks about cooling and that is something that geo-thermal is well suited for and then switches to trying to support the community energy project, which is for heating purposes only and not cooling ? Can you smell a planted person in this discussion who has alternate motives ?

Geo thermal is actually green. Burning wood waste is far from carbon neutral ( yes I know it would go to waste and be recycled by nature, over 80 years or so, not being burned in a fast process in the worst air shed in all of BC ! ).

Posted by: gus on September 16 2009 10:04 AM

Did you notice that the new HS has opening windows. A brand new concept.

-------------------------

I would be very careful with predicting the lifecycle cost of a geothermal heating/cooling system versus a biomass fired centralized community energy system.

The water in the aquifer is "free" and is presumably replenished suffciently to not change its temperature significantly. The pumps require energy to operate, presumably elecrtic energy. Electric energy is also required to move the hot/cold water through the community energy system.

The big unknown in the equation is what will the biomass price be in 2012, 2022, 2032, 2042? We know what the price of the water in the aquifer will likely be unless there is a change in environmental concerns about using aquifers for geothermal installations.

I would go with the geothermal option for many reasons. Put some solar on the roof/south walls and run the pumps from that energy if enough electricity can be generated in that fashion.

Of course, all pie in the sky stuff anway since there will be no money left to construct the building after all the studies have been paid for.

Posted by: metalman on September 16 2009 5:29 PM

Geothermal is great if you don't have to pay $500 grand to get it installed. One must not lose sight of the target, your heating and cooling costs do not disappear with geothermal, you still have to run liquid pumps and heat pumps, and they use electricity. A building of any size will have multiple pumps of both types. For example, the megabuck flophouse is heated and cooled by geothermal, and like the proposed copshop would, relies on a lot of wells drilled down to an aquifer. The drilling is not cheap and it does not end there. There are efficient alternatives to geothermal that cost a lot less to install, and there are many strategies that can be employed to lessen the reliance on mechanical cooling. I hope the powers do not get too hidebound on this fad called LEEDS, because the chief result of it is dramatically higher construction costs, and questionable long term savings and benefits.
metalman.

Posted by: supertech on September 16 2009 6:42 PM

Why didn't we force a referendum on this building? Is there a way??
It's not required and there's already an under ground parking lot not far away. Build a tunnel to the old office and take it up 2 floors. Good enough--they're not LA celebrities; they're government employees with a job to do.