November 14, 2007
McDonald’s Taps Into Geothermal
A McDonald’s restaurant in Pensacola, Florida is digging 55 holes, 350 feet deep to heat and cool the new restaurant with geothermal energy, Emerald Coast reports.
McDonald’s is evaluating the system as a corporate model.
Gulf Power Company is installing the system which will be monitored during the first year of operation to determine specifications for the most energy efficient system.
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Reader Comments
would u believe this??
alh
LInda | November 14th, 2007
My only concern with this is that Florida ground does not have the temperature differences that are great for geothermal systems. If the ground temp in summer is 60-70 at that depth, rather than the 50 or so that you see up north, then you don’t have as much of a cooling sink as you might in other areas. I hope that McD’s considers this demonstration and also how it might work in other geographic areas.
Laurel | November 16th, 2007
Are people still refering to geo-exchange heat pump systems as energy efficiency measures? Certainly, if it is an “efficiency” measure, it is a very expensive alternative to efficiency measures that might achieve more benefit for less investment. When factoring the economics of savings an the miriad of other available measures and technologies, geo-exchange may be quite inefficient.
I will trust that the alternatives have been well vetted for the particular case, but will nonetheless suggest caution in categorically accepting geo-thermal exchange heat pump systems as efficient.
Ken Neuhauser | November 16th, 2007