The home heating oil industry has a long and proud history, and Fuel Oil News has been there supporting it since 1935. It is an industry that has faced many challenges during that time. In its 77th year, Fuel Oil News is doing more than just holding
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www.fueloilnews.com | FUEL OIL NEWS | APRIL 2014 29 a heat loss/heat gain calculation known as a 'Manual J' calculation. If that is done correctly you do not need a backup." As a case in point, Queenan cited a recent project at a newly constructed 3,900-square-foot house in Westford, Mass. A closed-loop geothermal system that EarthTech Systems installed there has an output capacity of 29,000 British thermal units. The house has a 10KW electric "heat pac" for backup, but the owners did not have to turn it on once this past win- ter. "Even at minus eleven in January they didn't have to turn on the electric," Queenan said. With the geothermal unit running close to five hundred hours a month this past winter, the house in Westford cost about $160 a month to heat — working out to 32 cents per hour. "All the components are engineered to be very energy efficient," Queenan said. That includes two-stage compressors, electronically commutated motors and non-pressurized flow centers. The energy consumption of the Westford house is being monitored and can be followed online through the EarthTech Systems website (earth- techsystems.com). The data collection and presentation is being handled with technology provided by Ground Energy Support (groundenergysupport.com), based in Dover, N.H. Ground Energy Support markets its GxTracker system to geothermal installers and users. It provides residential and light commercial ground source heat pump users with a monitoring and verification system that shows real- time data about the heat transfer, environ- mental and cost benefits associated with their GSHP heating and cooling system. Installers can see the "health" status of their installations and can link directly to the energy dashboards where operation metrics and data are shown. Geothermal heating and cooling uti- lizes the constant temperature of the Earth to heat a dwelling during the win- ter months; similarly, heat is removed from the dwelling and deposited back underground during the cooling season. This is accomplished through the use of a geothermal unit installed in the dwell- ing and a high-density polyethylene pipe buried in the ground. Together, these two components use the earth as a year-round heat exchanger. Queenan, a 40-year veteran of the fuel oil industry, mostly as an installer and ser- vice technician, ventured into installation of geothermal heat pumps about ten years ago. "Our geothermal business has prob- ably grown about 50% in the past four or five years," he said. The company installed about twelve systems in 2013. In contrast to installation of an oil- fired unit, "They're time-consuming," Queenan said of the geothermal systems. "They can take weeks to do." And there is one aspect — the drilling of bore holes for wells — where outside expertise is required. EarthTech Systems works with a well- driller, Skillings & Sons, Amherst, N.H. Drilling can take one to two weeks and the system installation can take another week, or longer, Queenan said. "They're very heavy cumbersome machines," he said of the heat pumps, weighing from 400 to 800 lbs. Queenan also noted that his lead installer, William Dowling, is a seasoned plumber who has a vast knowledge of heating and air conditioning. "That makes it a little bit easier," he stated. The lion's share of installations that EarthTech performs consists of closed- loop systems. For example, EarthTech recently completed an installation for a 3,500-square-foot house in Carlisle, Mass. The six-ton, non-pressurized closed-loop geothermal system provides 72,000 Btus for heating, cooling, and approximately half to three-quarters of yearly domestic hot water needs. "We needed a little over six tons — at 12,000 Btus per ton — to heat this house," Queenan said. That meant drill- ing three 400-foot bore holes, which is HVAC/ HydroniCs By Stephen Bennett