Heat From the Ground Up
Posted on: Monday, 17 March 2008, 03:00 CDT
By Schuster, Ryan
Shirley Hovda's natural gas bill to heat her Quality Decorating business in Roseau, Minn., last February was $1,200.
After seeing too much of her profits go up in smoke, eaten away by high. heating and cooling costs for the 4,500-square-foot facility she was renting on Highway 11, Hovda decided she needed to make a change.
With the help of a $7,918 grant from the USDA Rural Development's renewable energy and energy efficiency program, Hovda installed a geothermal heating and cooling system in her business' new location. Quality Decorating's new 6,000-square-foot facility equipped with geothermal heating and cooling one mile south of Roseau on Highway 89 opens today.
"It is a very efficient way of heating," Hovda said of her decision to switch to geothermal. "We did not want a system where we were going to be on electrical off peak. We wanted it to be operating continuously. With our facility and the type of business we are operating, we are exhausting a lot of heat to maintain a friendly environment. In researching it, we found that this would be the best solution for us."
It didn't hurt that Hovda was running out of space in her old location and wanted to own her own facility instead of continuously paying rent.
Geothermal efficient, environmentally friendly
The geothermal system in the building consists of a well dug into the ground, and pumps groundwater through pipes in the building. A refrigeration process converts it to hot or cold air, which provides in-floor and forced air heating and cooling. The temperature inside is run by a thermostat.
"It's something that is up-and-coming industry-wide," said Paul Baumgartner, the owner of Northwoods Heating and Cooling in Roseau, who helped install the system. "Instead of burning gas or electric for heat, you are basically taking the heat out of the ground. You are basically using the Earth as your heat source. In the winter, you are taking heat out of the ground, and in the summer, you are taking cool out of the ground."
The geothermal system is functional and provides enough heat for the new facility, but Hovda said there is some minor duct work that needs to be finished before the forced air system is complete.
She said installing the geothermal system will cost roughly $30,000, but the USDA grant that she received from Wynne Consulting in Badger, Minn., accounts for about one fourth the system's initial cost. Hovda said the lower heating and cooling bills will help the system pay for itself. Hovda said Geroy's Building Center in Roseau had an average electrical bill of about $200 a month in 2006 to run the 14,000-square-foot building's geothermal system. Electricity is needed to pump the groundwater and run a refrigeration compressor.
"It's a four-to-six-year payback," said Baumgartner, noting that installing a traditional heating and cooling system in Quality Decorating's building would cost between $15,000 and $20,000. "I think geothermal is going to start to be looked at as fuel prices rise. People are going to start looking at other options."
Geothermal also is environmentally friendly, and is part of the nation's push to embrace renewable energy sources and eventually become less dependent on foreign oil.
Quality Decorating's grant is part of $347,000 in grants awarded in Minnesota along with more than $65,000 inguaranteed loans awarded for 21 projects in the state last fall as part of the USDA renewable energy program. Minnesota has received more than $18.5 million in grants, the most of any state in the nation, since the program's inception in 2003.
"There is more interest in renewable energy sources," said Lisa Noty, a business and co-op specialist with USDA Rural Development in Albert Lea, Minn. "People are just more energy conscious. They are paying more attention to their utility bills and are concerned with the environment."
New digs
Quality Decorating, which does commercial and residential decorating and specializes in custom wood finishing, applying chemical coatings to wood and metal substrates, was running out of room in its old facility.
The new location is big enough that there was room for Carson's Sharpening Service, which is run by Hovda's husband, Carson.
The building, which was built from scratch, also houses a new larger 1,700-square-feet air filtration system to filter out toxic fumes produced when the chemical coating is applied.
Family business
In addition to her husband running his business under the same roof, Hovda's son, Carey Jergenson, is a chemical coatings specialist with Quality Decorating.
Quality Decorating was established by Hovda's sister, Sandy Johnson, in 1988. Hovda took over the business a year later after her sister died in an automobile accident.
The business started out of the Hovda's 900-square-foot garage before spending part of the year in a facility on Main Avenue in Roseau that was not insulated, requiring Quality Decorating to move back into the garage each winter.
When Quality Decorating moved to its rented facility on Highway 11 in 2005, Carson's Sharpening Service moved into the garage. Now that the sharpening business also has its own space, Hovda has the added benefit of getting her garage back so she and her husband don't have to park outside anymore.
"It's too cold to leave them (the vehicles) parked outside these days," she said.
Copyright Grand Forks Herald Inc. Feb 4, 2008
(c) 2008 Grand Forks Herald. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Source: Grand Forks Herald
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