When he stood in front of Hanover Township's Board of Supervisors on October 13, his engineer repeatedly called him "Mister" Brau. In truth he is Doctor Alan Brau, with a busy medical practice in Bethlehem. A modest man, he is the person who first cast a public spotlight on problems with Northampton County's voting machines in 2006. Built with uncertified hardware, those machines had to be scrapped. But Dr. Brau's appearance before Hanover Supervisors had nothing to do with elections. He was there because he's getting cold, and needed their blessing on an unusual heating and cooling system for his home.Dr. Brau would like to use the earth to heat and cool his home. It's called geothermal, or "cave man" technology. Caves are always warmer than the outside air in Winter and cooler in the Summer. This difference between outside air temperature and earth temperature can be used to create a silent, inexpensive and environmentally friendly HVAC system. (You can see a video explaining how it works here).
Under a stand -alone ordinance for geothermal, Dr. Brau's six bore holes had to be 25' away from the public right of way and 25' feet away from his home. This basically left Kocher's Water Pumps with no room to work. Kocher plans to sink coils into those holes to soak up the earth's temperature and send it on to Dr. Brau's home.
Supervisors were asked to waive the setback requirements and allow the use of a 15% ethanol solution to go through the coils. Asked if it was safe, Jake Kocher told Supervisors that the solution is biodegradable. "You can drink it," he assured. He also noted that, in the event of a leak, the system automatically shuts down and an alarm is signaled. No more than a half gallon would seep into the ground.
Supervisor Stephen R. Salvesen recommended Dr. Brau's project on the condition that Hanover Township be held harmless from any liability and submits a plan for periodic inspection and maintenance. Solicitor James Broughal, who ruled that Supervisors have the authority to grant waivers from stand-alone ordinances, agreed to prepare the agreement. Salvesen's motion passed unanimously among the four Supervisors present. Chairman John N. Diacogiannis was away on business.
Told that he was the first person in Hanover Township to apply for a geothermal system, Dr. Brau said, "I hope you have a lot more of these systems. I think they're great."
In other business, Public Works Director Vincent G. Milite told Supervisors that recent heavy rains resulted in 8 or 9 sinkholes in the Township, most in the vicinity of Maria Pond. He said it took 156 tons of screenings, or crusher sand, to plug up the holes.
Township Manager Jay Finnigan told Supervisors he has a copy of Northampton County's 2011 budget available for inspection. "It's multiple choice," he said, adding "I have not taken that approach."
Hanover Township will vote on its budget in December.
My son has a geothermal system in his home in Centre County. It works beautifully summer and winter.
ReplyDeleteIt is inexpensive to run and environmentaly freindly. It also quiet and there are no spikes of heat and cold. you hardly know its there. It is the best of the green technology available today.
There are three geothermal heating units in our extended family. They are great ! Kocher did the one in our house. I think he did it for both of my sons. He did a great job.
ReplyDeleteMy late uncle was a contractor who moved to Florida during the boom of the 60's. He built his own home (of course) which had no basement.
ReplyDeleteThese pipes ran through his concrete slab floors amazingly effectively. It isn't like this is new cutting edge technology. It's quite proven for decades to work safely. Just a wonder why it took this long to come to this locality?
Geothermal is wonderful but I'd like to see Kocher drink the ethanol. Only food grade propylene glycol should be used...
ReplyDeleteSolutions of alcohols in water - methanol and ethanol - have low viscosity (which translates to lower pumping power) and relatively high heat transfer capability (which translates to shorter ground loops). On the negative side, however, they are highly volatile, flammable in concentrated or pure form, and toxic. Once mixed with water in typical antifreeze concentrations, the resulting solution is not flammable. Unlike methanol, pure ethanol is not toxic, but only denatured ethanol can be purchased for commercial use as an antifreeze. Denaturants render the ethanol toxic and some denaturants also will chemically attack polyethylene piping. Methanol is preferred because it eliminates the possiblity of such damage to ground loop piping, even though it is more toxic than denatured ethanol.
"These pipes ran through his concrete slab floors amazingly effectively."
ReplyDeleteAncient Romans did that, too!
"Only food grade propylene glycol should be used."
ReplyDeleteThis was discussed last night. Kocher stated that the glycol is less effective, but glycol is superior in many ways.
LVCI it was a cost issue - the systems are still expensive, but there's a 30% Federal grant for Geothermal installations. That, coupled with the natural evolution of technology and drop in prices, have made them more affordable and a great solution.
ReplyDeleteThe Banker
I did some volunteer work at a Habitat for Humanity site in Bethlehem a couple of years ago. If I recall correctly, they were putting in geothermal the houses in that development.
ReplyDeleteWith so many going straight to Hell these days, there seems a limitless supply of heat down there.
ReplyDeleteJay doesn`t have to work that way because Hanover is flush with moola at the expense of the cities who take their drp outs and rejects. How much did Hanover earmark for homelessness programs ?
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