Keith and Denise Giroux hope an investment in green technologies will pay big dividends within a decade.
The couple looked for alternate energy sources after buying the Radisson, Sask., School in 2007.
The local school division had closed the former Kindergarten to Grade 12 facility in 2003.
The Giroux family hired Solar Outpost to install a wind turbine and geothermal heating system for approximately $200,000 and now plan to take advantage of programs supporting green energies announced by Saskatchewan’s government Dec. 15.
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“Green is easy to do now,” said Keith Giroux. “They will all pay for themselves over time.”
The government announcement, made in the Girouxes’ new home on a -30 C morning, came one day after SaskPower reported a record amount of power delivered to its customers the previous evening.
Loans of up to $25,000 for installing a geothermal and/or loans up to $25,000 for installing a renewable system in a new or existing home will be offered by SaskPower Eneraction.
Enhancements have also been made to increase the usage of alternative energies and help defray costs though the existing Energy Efficient Rebate for New Homes Program, delivered through SaskEnergy.
Rebates of up to $3,500, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2008, will be available for the installation of a geothermal system.
The province is also topping up its net metering program to provide rebates up to $35,000 retroactive to April 1, 2007 for those who generate electricity using green technologies like wind or solar. A similar rebate for geothermal technologies will be introduced next year.
Giroux heats about 9,000 sq. feet of living quarters, maintains storage areas used for his business slightly above freezing and warms up the gymnasium only when it’s rented out for events. The 17 natural gas furnaces, powered by their wind turbine, have been replaced by eight geothermal ones.
“We should have a zero carbon footprint,” he said.
Each of their four home-schooled children has a classroom for a bedroom, with a skateboard ramp in one child’s room, seven couches in a fully stocked upstairs games room and a Jacuzzi tub on the enclosed patio.
David Anderson, an engineer with Solar Outpost, said wind energy systems for rural properties are the most economical while solar power makes more sense for city properties.
The Girouxes’ geothermal pipes are buried horizontally in a trench outside the school but vertically installed geothermal pipes are possible for smaller city lots.
Heat exchangers and pipes installed underground take advantage of the Earth’s stable temperatures three metres below the surface.
“It takes energy out of the ground and dumps it in the house,” he said, noting how it works like a refrigerator in reverse.
Instead of taking heat or thermal energy out of food and moving it to coils outside the refrigerator, a heat pump takes thermal energy from the ground and moves it inside a living space. The process is reversed in the summer, taking heat from the home and putting it into the ground.
Anderson said the payback on such systems with available incentives and grants are possible within seven to 10 years and cited a return on the investment of at least 10 percent.
A 10-kilowatt system using a 23-metre wind tower would cost about $48,000 installed and provide all the energy necessary for a typical farm without need for maintenance, Anderson said.
“It’s a real good clean system.”
He recommended installing the turbine a safe distance away from buildings to fully capitalize on available wind energy.
Anderson said demand has outstripped supply for such systems. It has grown to the point where Solar Outpost has a waiting list for installations.
“It is the most efficient system you can put in your house and it just makes sense economically,” he said.
