The Aspen School District is on the verge of drilling 1,000 feet into the earth.
That's to test the feasibility of installing geothermal heat pumps, a highly efficient heating and cooling system which would allow the district to harness the below-ground temperature of the earth to heat and cool its buildings.
"I want to push the envelope a little bit," said project lead Joe Waneka, Aspen School District's director of operations and facilities. "And that's why we're trying to use geothermal."
Geothermal heat pumps send the liquid compound Glycol far below the earth's surface. The Glycol absorbs the heat of the earth before transporting the heat to the heat pumps on the surface. The pumps then distribute the heat to buildings.
