Trust Water Solutions of New Paltz Ny Reviews

The Preserve at Vista Mountains offers residents net-zero comfort & affordable prices

In the state of New York, Lloyd Hamilton has been promoting netzero free energy homes (NZE) to fellow Empire Country residents since 2002. As the owner of consulting firm Verdae, LLC, located in Rhinebeck, New York, Hamilton soon convinced builder Anthony Aebi, president of Greenhill Contracting Inc., in nearby Esopus, to become a believer—and they have been making history ever since. Aebi built the first net-zero home to achieve a HERS alphabetize of 0, built the showtime development in the U.S. where every habitation is designed to be NZE, and has now built The Preserve, another NZE development with houses that are at mainstream marketplace rates.

"When I first started working with Anthony in 2007, I was thrilled to be his HVAC and building energy consultant," says Hamilton, a certified geothermal designer. "Nosotros were making history. The original net-zero development was called Dark-green Acres. It was designed for 25 high-end homes in New Paltz, New York, each incorporating insulated physical form (ICF) structure, solar panels and a WaterFurnace Envision geothermal system. The selling point for these homes was tremendous comfort and indoor air quality, plus an annual heating and cooling energy toll that came to zippo. In fact, nearly of the homes made some money by selling electricity back to the utility—and one resident fifty-fifty uses the electricity to charge his electric car.

"Now after the recession, Anthony chosen me about a cluster evolution called The Preserve. He wanted these ix homes to likewise exist NZE, but cost almost 20 percentage less. That meant finding a way to reduce costs overall, including geothermal installation costs, while improving energy efficiency."

Unmarried well serves dual purpose

For affordability, Aebi located The Preserve development in the New Paltz area where country costs less. The remote location also meant municipal water was not bachelor. So Aebi asked Hamilton if each well for each home could practice double duty: both to supply domestic water and to serve as a closed-loop heat-exchange well.

From the architect'south viewpoint, Anthony Aebi notes that, "The upshot with h2o-source geothermal is that if anything ever goes wrong with a well, you accept to drill a new 1. The other result is that yous have to drill a well in the first identify. The idea of using but one well was intended to address both these issues."

The request put Hamilton in a dissimilar state of affairs from the 2009 project. "Before, all the homes in Green Acres were on the municipal water supply," he says. "That meant nosotros had to bore holes averaging 500 anxiety deep in dense rock for a dedicated closedloop, vertical heat exchange well. Drilling through 500 feet of stone just for the water-source loop is expensive. Anthony figured using one well for both domestic water and a estrus exchange well would cut downward on drilling costs," Hamilton continued. "Plus, it would cut the maintenance costs associated with open up-loop wells, which typically involve a source well and an injection well that gets bogged down with mineral deposits from render water disposal.

"I did some research and found the only issue with using one well was getting enough room to make the closed loop fit. So we instructed the driller to bore an eight-inch well, rather than a six-inch well."

Hamilton determined the well depth using GeoLink Design Studio, WaterFurnace's geothermal blueprint and energy analysis software. He input the load information and the model— in this case, the WaterFurnace 7 Serial variable capacity model NV036 with three-ton capacity. Hamilton selected a vertical loop blazon with one u-bend with an average loop depth of 200'. After inputting the dumbo stone type and the minimum and maximum loop temperatures, the programme determined the depth of the diameter.

"We came up with a 400-pes well depth with 100 feet of pipage to the firm," says Aebi. "Doubling those numbers comes to betwixt 875 to 1200 feet of polyethylene pipage in each loop."

Air-tight construction improves efficiency, comfort and immovability

Compared to other closed loop water-source installations, that length is curt. Hamilton could get abroad with the short length because homes in The Preserve have an airtight building envelope, with less than 200 cfm/5o leakage, and loftier R-value ICF construction, which substantially reduces the heating and cooling load. "I actually see my task more than similar a commissioning amanuensis for wholehome efficiency," says Hamilton. "Every bit defined by ASHRAE, that role involves figuring out the owner'south interests and helping them achieve their goals. I understand how the house functions. The beat needs to piece of work properly. The indoor surroundings needs to be piece of cake to command. The indoor air quality, condolement and immovability of the building are assured with a very tight building. All of these factors reduce the load and, consequently, the first toll of the geothermal system."

As a result of the load reduction, Hamilton notes that he could select the smallest, three-ton WaterFurnace 7 Series model. "New York has incentives for builders who build ENERGY STAR® homes. Talking with the ENERGY STAR program managers at the NY level, they agreed that we could utilise the vii Series, even though it is oversized for the load, and rate the energy employ based on the speed that meets the Manual J load calculation. I was able to fine tune the functioning of the 7 Series using their AID interface tool, until the unit was running at the minimum speed needed. Typically, that turned out to exist speed vi. "The WaterFurnace seven Series is designed to fit in so many situations," he continues. "It has 12 stages of heating and 9 stages of cooling. So for instance, it tin run at 60 percent of capacity or less and meet the cooling load. The keen thing is, the unit tin run at any speed down to one, so yous tin can take it running at very low speed at very high efficiency."

In this case, the speed reduction accomplished an efficiency that is "far beyond the ENERGY STAR efficiency standards," says Pasquale Strocchia, possessor of Integral Edifice and Design in New Paltz who serves equally the HERS Energy Rater (RESNET) and the LEED® for Homes Green Rater (USGBC) for Aebi's projects.

Homes feature multiple energy certifications.

"The Preserve homes have several energy certifications," Strocchia notes. "First, they have a HERS alphabetize of less than 7. Homes with a HERS Alphabetize of less than 15 are generally considered net-zip capable. The HERS index scale goes from 0 to 100. A nil is, of course, a internet-goose egg free energy home.

"All of Anthony's homes are less than vii. The maximum HERS alphabetize for an ENERGY STAR habitation is nearly 75. And so these homes easily see and exceed the ENERGY STAR requirement. Additionally, Aebi has earned a number of other exceptional green building certifications for his homes, including the EPA Indoor airPLUS, DOE Cypher Energy Set up Homes and USGBC'southward LEED for Homes.

"In my experience, WaterFurnace has always been right in front in terms of the prevalence of units. The feedback I receive from homeowners with existing systems is by and large very positive."

Chrissy Roth and Al White, who moved into The Preserve on Oct. 21, 2013, have positive feelings. "We knew Anthony had built the Green Acres community in our expanse," says Chrissy. "But it was out of our means at the time. We lived in a condominium with a boiler and an air-workout system that needed a few window air conditioners, too. It was highly inefficient. Making the move to an environmentally designed home was what we wanted to do.

"Male child, did it pay off. Even in the worst of the 2014 winter, our Jan free energy bill was merely $100. And that was keeping our 2,350-square-foot home at 72 degrees for 24 hours a day. This summertime our solar PV system is producing electricity, so nosotros expect to accept made more energy than we used past October, which shows net-zero free energy is possible even 80 miles north of New York."

Chrissy says they also feel more than comfortable. "When my blood brother and sis visited us, they said it was remarkable to go into every room and have the verbal aforementioned temperature—downstairs, upstairs, our bedroom, our bathroom, up in the attic—everything was the same. The WaterFurnace system along with the ICF walls and 12- to 15-inch insulation in the ceiling make a huge difference."

Lloyd Hamilton is pleased to be role of another successful Aebi net-zero project. "For The Preserve development, the loop is the unique affair that I did. We were able to piggyback the airtight loop inside the water well. That saved on drilling costs and site disruption," says Hamilton.

"With the loop being immersed directly in well h2o, we get high thermal efficiency that takes full reward of the 7 Serial variable speed capabilities. That is of import, because nosotros're in a heating dominated climate. And it's an environmentally friendly solution, too, because we can only use plain water in the loop instead of glycol, because the well water doesn't freeze. Information technology'due south a win-win-win that worked really well for everybody."

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Source: https://netzeroenergyhudsonvalley.com/about-us/waterfurnace-spotlight

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