Geothermal Design Center Inc.
Our Licensed Professional Engineering firm Geothermal Design Center Inc. and Licensed HVAC firm Asheville Geothermal Inc. have been designing and installing Advanced Geothermal Heat Pump (GHP) Heating and Cooling Systems for almost 15 years. With a Renewable Energy focused PE and Certified GeoExchange Designer (CGD) on staff, we help clients with system engineering and analysis from large Net Zero Energy Developments to individual homes. We also undertake advanced Geothermal Industry R&D and Product Development enabled by our Intelli-Products engineering firm.
Net Zero Energy Systems Engineering
Net Zero Energy and Net Zero Carbon engineering represent the front edge of the Clean Energy and Climate Action movements. This level of Systems Engineering requires advanced modeling and simulation, as do all Large Geothermal System Design efforts. Geothermal Design Center is available to engineer those unique local projects in the Asheville NC area that require ‘out-of-the-box’ analysis. Contact us if you have a NZE/Zero Carbon project.
Certified GeoExchange Designer Certificate
Design of Advanced Geothermal Systems is complicated and should only be done by qualified individuals. Geothermal Design Center strongly believes no engineer should be designing geothermal systems beyond simple small systems without having completed the Association of Energy Engineers’ Certified GeoExchange Designer (CGD) certification. We do have this very important certificate (CGD #331) because of all the experience and training we have in this field. We regularly see significantly faulty geothermal drawings and guidance from engineers without the CGD — faults which would cost the owner large sums both in construction and operation.
The AEE describes the CGD as follows:
“The Certified GeoExchange Designer (CGD) program is designed to recognize professionals who have demonstrated high levels of experience, competence, proficiency, and ethical fitness in applying the principles and practices of geothermal heat pump design and related disciplines, as well as to raise the professional standards within the field, and to encourage those involved in the design process through a continuing education program of professional development. The CGD certification is granted by the Association of Energy Engineers and sponsored by the Geothermal Heat Pump Consortium® (GHPC).”
Advanced Thermal Conductivity Testing
Geothermal Design Center brings Leadership and Innovation to the Geothermal Heat Pump (GHP) industry. We won a Small Business Vouchers Pilot grant to have Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL) validate our breakthrough Advanced Thermal Conductivity Testing (A-TCT) method. The effort has been a 100% SUCCESS based on core engineering work provided by Intelli-Products Inc. ORNL confirmed our new way to perform ground Thermal Conductivity Testing works faster and better than existing methods. Further, our innovations can be used to confirm proper ground loop pipe and grout installation — a completely new capability for the GHP industry. Our new A-TCT method further lowers the cost of Thermal Conductivity Testing by eliminating the need for an expensive generator — stable power is no longer required! This is an exciting development for the geothermal industry that is significantly improving the quality of Thermal Testing and lower its cost for large GHP sites. This is just one of our several GHP Product Development efforts based on Intelli-Products engineering work.
The underlying method involved in this innovation is based on understanding the similarity between Advanced Circuit Analysis and Ground Thermal Transfer Analysis, and then reducing the problem to an optimized model so it can be run without purchasing cloud computing resources. Solving for the many parameters involved (TC/HC for each of the grout and ground, and for all pipe and bore factors) is done with a Simulation Correlation Analysis involving Multi-Variate Regression. This is the type of advanced modeling/simulation work that Intelli-Products can undertake. Advanced NZE/Zero Carbon system analysis is very similar.
You can read the official ORNL Report on our Advanced Thermal Conductivity Testing system here (click green “View Technical Report” button to read the full report).
Geo-Assured
We introduced the Geo-Assured™ Integrated Geothermal Quality Assurance System. Geo-Assured is a suite of tools for use by engineers, building owners, and contractors specifically created to qualify a geothermal system design and to convert the design into a detailed construction and verification plan. This product was developed for our companion firm Geothermal Design Center.
Standards Compliance Testing
The new Bi-National ANSI/CSA C448-16 Geothermal Design and Installation Standard is a major development in the GHP field. The C448 Standard covers all aspects of every type of GHP system design and installation. We sit on the Technical Committee for this important standard and understand it thoroughly. In our opinion, every GHP installation should be specified to meet C448-16 — that would eliminate many of the problems that occur with conventional HVAC engineers and contractors in the GHP field.
Peak Therm
The PeakThermal Project will create a new far less expensive approach to HVAC design and installation that will establish GHP as the undisputed leader. This is a very important step if we are to #SolveClimate. GHP is a key part of #Electrification and the elimination of fossil fuel use in our society.