Historic Providence Building Gets Geothermal HVAC System

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 | Green Buildings & Green Technology, HVAC Regulations and Standards

The December 8 Providence Journal of Providence, Rhode Island features a great article (”Ideal Blend of Old, New“) about the renovation of the former Rhode Island Medical Society Building to include a geothermal HVAC system and other green features.

The renovations involved the drilling of “the first geothermal wells in downtown Providence to both heat and cool [owner Jason E. Kelly's] building” and resulted in “one of Rhode Island’s ‘greenest’ office buildings.”

Read it, you’ll like it! In the meantime, here’s a cherry-picked passage about the HVAC system:

Early on it became clear that the building needed a large heating and air conditioning system and the only place it would fit was the roof — where it would be highly visible and very ugly.

At that point, Virginia L. Branch and others at Durkee Brown Viveiros Werenfels architects guided Kelly to a geothermal system designed by Innovative Construction & Design Solutions LLC, of Guilford, Conn.

This week a big drilling rig is jacked up in the narrow space between the building and the sidewalk, grinding the two, 1,500-foot-deep wells that will provide a steady supply of ground water that will provide the building’s heat in the winter and cool it down in the summer.

Engineer Kenneth J. Eldridge says the wells will provide a constant source of water ranging from 46 to 50 degrees that will be pumped up to at a rate of 78 gallons per minute to a heat exchanger, and then recycled back into the ground.

“As far as we know, this is the first commercial use of geothermal downtown,” says Branch.

The only mechanical equipment is a small unit in the basement, and individual units scattered around the offices to let people have individual temperature controls. Moran will be spared the costs of air conditioning and fuel oil.

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Written by: Goodway Blogging Team

Tags: geothermal HVAC system, geothermal wells, green buildings, Medical Society Building, Providence Journal