New Pettisville school building may utilize geothermal power

By DAVID J. COEHRS

Expositor Features Editor

PETTISVILLE - The dream of Pettisville Local School District administrators to operate 'green' may be a step closer to reality.

At a meeting June 24, Superintendent Stephen Switzer and school board members were updated on the possibility of operating the district's forthcoming $21.4 million complex with geothermal heating and cooling.

If approved, it would make the school district the first in Fulton County to utilize geothermal power.

Following a consultant's survey of the site, the project's architect, the Buehrer Group of Maumee, recommended the district create a pond field to generate geothermal power. The environmentally-sound system of coils would cost $140,000 and require a zoning variance.

Coils filled with coolant and submerged in the pond would use the earth to heat or cool air to circulate through the new school building. Other geothermal methods include a horizontal field of coils priced at $180,000 and a series of wells totaling $800,000.

"As a green effort, it's very environmentally friendly," Switzer said. "It doesn't use fossil fuels. We've wanted to do geothermal from Day One. It has been positive information, and will likely be a go."

Repairs to the system are as simple as emptying the problem coil, and "should probably be a simple matter," he said.

The geothermal heating and cooling system has become more efficient with development, and is being increasingly utilized in more applications, Switzer added.

It also gained approval for funding last year by the Ohio School Facilities Commission. The cost would be included in the district's $3.85 million share of funding for the building.

Lead architect Brent Buehrer said estimates based on a 10 1/2- cent kilowatt hour rate indicate an annual electric bill of $100,712 using geothermal power and over $124,000 using a gas boiler.

He said a pond field was recommended because less pipe length is required and conductivity is greater in water.

A geothermal system definitely has merit, particularly if the electricity is generated by wind power, Buehrer said.

"You're extracting heat from the ground that, in essence, you're not paying for," he said.

According to Switzer, "Our dream from the beginning was having a geothermal school powered by a windmill." However, the possibility of windmill power through a collaboration with Archbold schools and Northwest State Community College is still tentative, he said. The school district is investigating sources of stimulus package money or using funds left over from the building project.

"Based on what they tell us, the bidding climate is excellent, so we're hopeful," Switzer said.

Board President John King said it has always been the school district's interest to look seriously at geothermal power.

"At this point, it looks fairly promising that we'll be able to put in a system that meets our heating and cooling needs from a demand standpoint, and it would be fairly affordable," he said.

Ground-breaking for the 97,000 square-foot stand-alone K-12 building is scheduled for September. It will be located on 23 acres of land south of the present building and across County Road D.

The new complex will eventually be attached to the present building's 1994 addition. The remainder of the original structure will be demolished.

The new building is scheduled to open in 2011.

The school board will investigate comparisons between a geothermal system and a traditional natural gas system before reaching a decision within about two months.