Thu Feb 09 2012
By Colin McEwen
Record-Courier staff writer
As work to build the new Ravenna High School on North Chestnut Street continues, there is a little-known underground project associated with the construction -- 305 feet beneath the surface.
A five-man crew from Bertram Drilling, of Billings, Mont., is drilling holes for the school's new geothermal heating and cooling system -- a move by the Ravenna School District to cut costs while reducing its carbon footprint.
From sun-up to sun-down until December the men are able to dig as many as four holes 305 feet deep each day. They are quickly approaching hole number 50 -- with almost 200 to go.
They sink past shale and sandstone using a high-power ed"air hammer," displacing the earth about 8 inches in diameter where a 610-foot-long tube will loop down to the spot where the earth is a constant 55-degree temperature.
Excess earth not going to the adjacent wetlands will be hauled from the site.
When completed, the underground tubes will have water constantly flowing through them, using the air temperature around the water to heat and cool the school.
Drilling foreman Shane Braley said each hole and tube, spaced 20 feet apart, will collect into a larger tube and travel into a vault before entering the heat exchange system, which will utilize the base temperature to heat and cool the school.
"We're turning the earth here into a giant radiator," he said.
Braley said the company, in business for 15 years, has grown with an increasing nation-wide demand for environmentally friendly heating and cooling systems.
"We're a highly recommended and specialized company," he said. "We're constantly growing."
The Kent City School District installed geothermal technology when Stanton Middle School was built in 1999 and has since formed an energy conservation program, saving the district more than $930,000 in five years.
One of the criticisms of the geothermal unit in Kent is that on bitterly cold days, it is difficult to heat a large building without the aid of a supplemental boiler.
Tom Condit, who is the energy manager for the Kent schools and was principal at Stanton at the time of its construction, said those days of sub-zero tempertures are are few and far between.
"Fortunately that does not happen very much," he said, adding the system works well.
He said the geothermal heating and cooling system has saved the district money, as well as helped the district do its part in reducing its carbon footprint.
"Our whole energy conervation program has been a success," said Condit. "We've been able to reduce our natural gas and electricity consumption."
The area of construction at the future site of Ravenna's high school is being dug up, drilled and flatted in preparation for the construction. The mud near the drilling is nearly covered with powder shale and sandstone retrieved from hundreds of feet beneath the surface.
Superintendent Tim Calfee said the area close to Chestnut Street where the geothermal work is being carried out will be covered with green grass at the end of the project, concealing any evidence of a geothermal system.
Of the district's $1 million cost to install heating and cooling, $400,000 is for the geothermal system, but Calfee said it is worth it.
"It will pay for itself in about two years," he said. "I think everybody is concerned about the consumption of gas and oil. This is a way to heat and cool for less money, while using environmentally friendly technology to do it."
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