Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Geothermal

[Fred H. Olson (fholson]

"Peg Blum" <peggyblum [at] worldnet.att.net>
is the author of the message below but due to a problem it was posted
by Fred the list manager: owner-cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org
If you reply to this message, please take care with destination address.
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Hello from a member of Cambridge Cohousing (a resident-in-waiting):

As far as I know, the first nine households who have moved in are comfort=
able in their geothermally heated units...in the beginning (2 or 3 weeks =
ago) there were some complaints about being cold on the weekends.  I beli=
eve the system was only partially operating at that time.  Also our weath=
er has been rather mild...the next few days, when the temperature is due =
to really drop, should be a good test.  Although I am not "qualified" to =
describe the technical details, I do know we have 3 wells, each about 120=
0 feet deep to allow us to take advantage of constant temperature of well=
 water (48 degrees in winter to 55 in summer).  And we have a very impres=
sive looking set of compressors and pumps in the basement of our common =
house.  We will be purchasing electricity at commercial electric rates =
and we also received a $10,000 grant or bonus or??? from Cambridge Electr=
ic.  Right now, our Managing Board is struggling to figure out how to app=
ortion the costs of electricity among the units.  We'll keep you posted =
as we live with the system, especially after all 41 units are occupied.

Peg
peggyblum [at] worldnet.att.net