City of Wyandotte, Mich., creates a geothermal utility

WYANDOTTE, MICH. — The principle behind geothermal heating and cooling is a simple one: dig down toward the bedrock almost anywhere in the world and you reach a stable temperature zone that is somewhere between 52°F and 55°F year-round. By using water circulated in a deep enough ground well as an energy transfer medium, you get the ∆T between well temperature and surface temperature — cooling power on hot days, heating power on cold ones — practically for free.

The plan, made possible in part through a $560,000 Neighborhood Stabilization Grant from the federal government, is an ambitious one. The project has identified 48 installations in the planning phase, and work has been either started or completed on 10. Included in the plan are 25 new residential installations, 19 retrofit installations, three commercial installations and one new 20-unit multi-family development.

The city hired private contractors to drill ground source wells in utility easements and connect several homes to each well. Tentative plans call for the municipal services to cover the $8,000 cost for each well and charge home and building owners a monthly service fee and energy charge based on the capacity of the system installed. On the other side of the equation, homeowners can qualify for a 30% tax credit on the cost of purchasing and installing a geothermal system through 2016.

The job of installing those systems went to Jeff Caplan’s firm, Cappy Heating & Air Conditioning , based in Livonia, Mich. Caplan, the owner and president, has been in the trades for nearly 30 years and sees geothermal work as a natural outgrowth of his regular HVAC service. Cappy Heating & A/C is accredited by the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association (IGSHPA). The company has about 32 employees, with a service area covering most of southeast Michigan.

“The geothermal utility puts in the field portion, the drilling and the pipe,” Caplan said. “We pick it up from the geothermal utility stop box — it’s like a water box that’s out in the front yard — and pipe it into the home. And from there we supply and install the ground-source heat pump, then do all the sheet metal ductwork. We design and build all of that.”

Caplan decided to use the Envision series ground source heat pump from WaterFurnace . The appliance is available in seven single-speed sizes and five dual-capacity sizes to meet the needs of almost any application.It uses ozone-safe refrigerant R-410A and features microprocessor controls. Properly installed and maintained, it can offer energy savings of up to 70% compared to more conventional heating and cooling systems, and can even increase the supply of domestic hot water.

Interdynamics 323 Recharge Retrofit Kit | Air Conditioning Refrigerant

Interdynamics 323 Recharge Retrofit Kit

Amazon Sales Rank: #6505 in Automotive Brand: Interdynamics Dimensions: 4.00 pounds Kit retrofit refrigerant Includes: Three 15 oz. cans, each containing 12 oz. of 134a refrigerant and 3 oz. of PAG oil with r Patented/patent pending R-134a recharge hose with in-line gauge to check pressure as you refill the R-134a high and low side retrofit fittings and caps A third retrofit fitting for pre-76 vehicles and late mode imports

Customer most helpful reviews 5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Well worth the money E. Maynard I have this kit to adapt / repair my 92 Toyota test positive in a system A / C. It has been a couple months ago I used it, and A / C works perfectly. The leaks are gone, the compressor goes Quitely and the system seems to work even colder than before. A local A / C shop asked me $ 381 for the charging system, which would have been higher in order to detect and fix any leaks. 1 of 1 people found this review helpful. This is all you need for one. Sucsessfull and easy A / C-adapted T. I am very happy Titzmann My old A / C (R12) is running again. It was very easy to use and much cheaper than filling the Bosch Service (estimate: € 140 = $ 210). The refrigant works well with the old components from my A / C. See all 2 reviews ...


Retrofitting Ac Refrigerants - Bookshelf

1998 report of the Refrigeration, Air Conditioning, and Heat Pumps Technical Options Committee, 1998 assessment

1998 report of the Refrigeration, Air Conditioning, and Heat Pumps Technical Options Committee, 1998 assessment

10.3.3 Retrofit refrigerants The international vehicle manufacturers have, ... A /C systems Mobile A/C systems designed to operate on CFC-12 were never ...

Be Your Own Auto Repair Technician

Be Your Own Auto Repair Technician

How to Retrofit Air Conditioning in Cars to New Refrigerant If A/C in your ... Purchase an A/C retrofit kit for R-134a refrigerant ($30) at your local auto ...

UNEP 2006 report of the Refrigeration, Air Conditioning, and Heat Pumps Technical Options Committee

UNEP 2006 report of the Refrigeration, Air Conditioning, and Heat Pumps Technical Options Committee

HFC- 134a, R-404A and R-407C are identified as the most used retrofit refrigerants for smaller units previously ... A/C and Heat P0mps Assessment Rep. rt ...

Popular Mechanics

Popular Mechanics

In fact, using the wrong refrigerant can seriously damage an a/c system. ... Retrofit procedures and parts required have been developed by carmakers and the ...

SAE surface vehicle emissions standards manual

SAE surface vehicle emissions standards manual

Retrofitting Mobile Air Conditioning Systems With Replacement Refrigerants 18.1 Documents were developed at the request of EPA to identify alternate ...

Perfect Information Directory


AC Retrofit: Replacing R22 During Service Calls
AC retrofit during service calls: convert R22 equipment to ISCEON MO99 refrigerant, a more sustainable, non-ozone-depleting replacement.

ALTERNATE REFRIGERANTS AND AIR CONDITIONING AC A/C RETROFIT ...
R–12 has prompted demands for R–134a retrofit kits and/or alternate refrigerants. ... refrigerants when servicing or retrofitting R–12 HVAC systems. ...

AC 134a Retrofit
Turbo Regal Performance Recipes ... A retrofit in layman's terms is the conversion of a CFC based system to use a HFC refrigerant. With little or no degradation in ...

Guidance on Retrofitting to HFC-134a | Ozone Layer Protection ...
The term "retrofit" describes special procedures required to convert an R-12 system to ... in the future for retrofitting to refrigerants other than R-134a. ...

Retrofitting Refrigerants - 4HTRET
successful, cost effective retrofit of refrigerants. This course is for supervisory, ... successful, cost effective retrofit of refrigerants. This course is ...