By, Doug Carruthers 
Out of 5000 designers directly invited, we had 42 attempt to Prove Carda Wrong in our challenge but only 5 were able to answer correctly. That is a solid B+ going to Carda but a very disappointing F going to the geothermal designers. As informal polling goes, that is pretty strong evidence that there is room for improvement or at least a need for a refresher course when it comes to the fundamentals of geothermal system design.
Our last post 95% Of All Zones Are Designed Inaccurately was titled and written with a heavy hand. It was a marketing piece first and an informational article second. The truth is that the overall impact of properly calculated correction factors will not make or break a system design unless that system is operating under some very unusual conditions.
Understanding why that is true and when correction factors should be calculated, are important skills for every geothermal system designer.
Food For Thought
3% of LoopLink users have designed 16% of all the projects, 26% of all the zones and 30% of the total installed capacity on LoopLink's servers. In other words, 3% of our users:
- Design more projects than anyone else.
- Design larger projects than anyone else.
- Are LoopLink Certified.
We aren't going to take credit for the success of these individuals but we will say that the most successful among us, are always those that challenge themselves to learn more.
Improve Yourself To Maintain The Health Of The Industry
We of course have an interest in getting more people to get trained, we are in business to make money, but our motivation is more than just short term profits (read our training mission). It is crucially important for the success of the geothermal industry that all installations are designed professionally and optimized to offer the shortest return on investment with the best long term performance. One bad system can ruin an entire market. Negative word of mouth spreads faster than wildfire especially when the source is a homeowner burned after investing top dollar in a comfort system.
If you are among the 37 designers brave enough to try and fail, we have no doubt that you can Prove Carda Wrong. We will honor the $200 discount offer you earned for the rest of this year because we really do want you to take this opportunity to improve yourself and your business. Call us before you enroll (866-995-4449) and we will make sure you get the discount.
If you prefer the lone wolf approach to things, the science and methods behind everything we train is covered, in detail, in the IGSHPA RLC Manual. We are happy to field any questions you may have as you work through it.