Call me a skeptic, but I don’t believe politicians and environmentalists all ride bicycles to speaking engagements, or even drive around in all-electric cars. I'm willing to reduce my carbon footprint, if those calling for us to conserve, and "go green" reduce their carbon production to the same levels before pointing their fingers at the rest of us.
If it makes economic sense, let’s keep building windmills and solar energy centers. We must not, however, put an abrupt stop to the drilling for oil and digging of coal unless $9/gallon fuel and $600/month heating bills are a reasonable price to pay for avoiding drilling accidents. Remember when fuel went over $4/gallon? I do, and I didn’t like it much. Most of us need to drive, or ride in cars, to make this economy productive.
In our business, we view buildings as opportunities to provide practical solutions. Solving energy problems, requires practical thinking. I like the idea of a ground source heating system, such as the one we are installing at Wamego Central School.
Taking heat from the earth in winter, returning heat to the earth in summer just makes sense to me. Drilling 50 holes in the ground to install coolant lines can make a mess, but once this solution is in place, it’s say goodbye to the natural gas company.
Is this Critical Environment ConstructionTM? Well not exactly, but it is practical thinking to use a heating and cooling system that will pay for itself in less than 10 years and after that costs little to operate. Look for more details regarding this project in the months to come.
Joseph Bramlage - Director of Marketing and Information Technology
