CaliforniaGeo 6-25-17 Short-term learning has exploded in the last 25 years.  Conferences still exist, but tighter budgets for business related learning and renewal has been met with targeted seminars.  It’s get in, get it, and get out.  It’s like E. Scrooge meets Cliff Notes.  Seminars have been joined by the Internet-based webinar.  Distance, overnight stays […]

CaliforniaGeo 6-20-17 [This study was conducted by Oklahoma State University’s Jeffrey Spitler and Laura Southard.  Data processing was overseen by Xiaobing Liu of Oak Ridge National Laboratory.] A major retrofit project to the U.S. headquarters building in Atlanta, GA for the American Society of Heating and Refrigeration Engineers was envisioned as a “split system” but […]

An Important “Proof-of-Concept” Project in Valley Stream NY taps flow from a water main for thermal exchange CaliforniaGeo 6-14-17 [This important HVAC retrofit at the William L. Buck Elementary School in Nassau County took on the first-cost issue of needing a ground heat exchanger for geo heat pumps head-on. Bosch Thermotechnology Corp.’s Business Development Manager […]

 (and it’s not California) CaliforniaGeo 6-12-17 [On April 19-20, 2017, the New York Geothermal Energy Organization held a conference in Albany, the state’s capital.  It was titled “Helping New York Meet Its Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Goals.”  This state has built momentum that few others can claim.] Final attendance figures have not been published, but the […]

Heat Pump History by Bill Holladay From Engineering & Science Monthly (October, 1948) Take a look at mechanical history! We celebrate GHPs (geothermal heat pumps) as the most efficient thermal transfer equipment known.  But the grandfathers of GHPs go back to primitive compressor experiments prior to 1900 by VonRittenger.  In this Engineering & Science Monthly […]

CaliforniaGeo 4-13–17 [On November 21, 2014, Don Penn, President of Image Engineering Group in Grapevine, TX made a presentation to the annual conference of the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association (IGSHPA) regarding 10 myths held by the public regarding geothermal heat pumps.  This blog entry deals with a selection of five of those 10.] […]

Is slashing the EPA budget an act of shooting yourself in the foot? Sacramento Bee 3-20-17 “Don’t slash the EPA’s budget What if ISIS was responsible for the flooding that damaged or destroyed 40,000 homes in Louisiana in 2016? What if al-Qaida was responsible for the California foothills forest fires that destroyed thousands of homes […]

CaliforniaGeo 3-17-17   Like most consumers, it pains me to admit that I got fooled by the world’s largest automaker after lots of research and comparisons.  So we had to wonder about a VW Buy-Back for our 2015 Passat TDI.  Ultimately, it was better to take the emissions buy-back than to risk a de-valued trade-in, a private […]

CaliforniaGeo 3-2–17 As what may become known as the “greenest” large retailer in the nation, IKEA  has hit a new mark for sustainability with its Centennial, Colorado store, south of Denver.  This store has two levels of underground parking, two levels of retail space, two restaurants with total  seating for 550, and contains 415,000 square […]

CaliforniaGeo 2-17-17 Commercial wind turbines evolve- While commercial wind turbines of 30 Kilowatts (KW) output were turning at Tehachapi Pass in California in 1981, NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy completed the first megawatt-scale wind farm in the nation at Goodnoe Hills, Washington.  That wind farm contained three two-blade turbine units, each capable of […]