Pros and Cons of Centralized Pumping

By, Ryan Carda

With a ground source heat pump system (as with anything else), the designer must strike the right balance between installation and operating costs. This is true of all aspects of design, but is especially true of the interior piping design as well as the pump layout and selection. Even with the best design, the efficiency gains from a GSHP system can be completely erased by poor piping and pumping design (due to excessive head loss, oversized pumps, improper control, etc.).

While there are many options with respect to pumping system layout and design, they generally fall into one of two categories: centralized or distributed. While there are merits to both approaches, the process of finding the best choice for your application starts with an evaluation of the the project.

Centralized Pumping Basics

A centralized system will use one or more pumps at a central location to induce flow through the loopfield and then distribute it to the units scattered throughout the building, as shown in the illustration.

For large systems that fall in this category, variable speed control is common (and may even be required)¹.

In general terms, the use of a centralized pump will be well-suited for a building with a small footprint where the interior piping can easily be connected to the GSHP units that are scattered throughout². Centralized pumping may also be ideal for applications with significant load diversity where ‘load sharing’ principles can be used to reduce overall loopfield requirements³.

To determine whether this design approach is the best choice for your system, start by estimating the installation and operating costs and then comparing them to a distributed pumping approach. Next, take a full accounting of the pros and cons of centralized pumping, a few of which are as follows:

Pros:

• Large pumps generally have better overall efficiency values than the smaller pumps used in distributed arrangements.
• When required, maintenance is performed at the central pumping station (located in the mechanical room or dedicated pump house) which provides adequate access and minimal disturbance to the rest of the building.
• Maintenance costs and personnel requirements are generally the lowest with this approach.

Cons:

• A large interior piping loop must be used to connect all of the GSHP units to the central circulating pump, which requires proper design, increases complexity, requires the use of larger pipe sizes and drives up installation cost.
• VFD flow control can be complicated and central systems must be balanced for proper operation⁴.
• Failure or shutdown of the pumping system will cause the entire system to be down.

Best Suited For:

• Buildings with small footprints and/or significant load diversity².

Additional Notes:

• To avoid system shutdown due to failure or routine maintenance, redundancy with a standby pump (in parallel with the main pump) is recommended. With redundant pumps, duty cycling is important to help with pump longevity and to even out service life expectancy.
• When variable speed control is required, flow control measures (such as zone valves and pressure sensors) are necessary.
• With variable speed control, the pressure drop in the distribution piping should be kept low. Additionally, the system should be balanced during startup to ensure proper control can be achieved.
• Variable speed pumps should be designed to never operate below 25% of design flowrate to ensure that the motor and VFD efficiencies remain relatively high. For most GSHP systems, a large percentage of operating hours for the year will be at the lower end of the flowrate (idle or with 20% to 40% of GSHP units operating).

In a large GSHP system, a centralized pumping solution may be beneficial because of the low number of pumps required along with their central placement (which comes in handy when maintenance is required). But the system designer must select a pump that meets pressure and flow requirements while also providing economical operation, which can be tricky at part load conditions.

Because of the increased complexity of system design and control, as well as the lower limit on flow with variable speed equipment, it may be worth looking at the Pros and Cons of Distributed Pumping to see if it is a better fit for your application and more importantly, a better fit for your customer.

Footnotes:

1. Per ASHRAE 90.1 (2016), “Hydronic heat pumps and water-cooled unitary air conditioners having a total pump system power exceeding 5 hp shall have controls and/or devices (such as variable-speed control) that will result in pump motor demand of no more than 30% of design wattage at 50% of design water flow.”
2. Refer to Chapter 6 in Geothermal Heating and Cooling: Design of Ground-Source Heat Pump Systems (Kavanaugh and Rafferty, 2014).
3. LoopLink PRO can be used determine how much ground loop reduction is possible with load sharing principles for a given system.
4. A recent GSHP field study indicated that less than 10% of the ground-loop variable speed pumps with differential pressure transducer control were operating as intended due to faulty controls or had pumps large enough to provide near full-load flow rate at minimum motor speed (Kavanaugh 2012).

Geothermal Loops: 5 Reasons for using HDPE & PEXa

By, Ryan Carda

With so many available options, why has the geothermal heat pump industry gravitated toward exclusively using polyethylene (PE) - specifically HDPE and PEXa - for ground loop construction, especially considering it is one of the most insulative piping materials available?

Aside from the fact that PE piping accounts for a tiny fraction of the overall thermal resistance in a loopfield¹, it offers a lot more benefits than deficits.

Photo courtesy of ISCO Industries.

Industry Standards

HDPE and PEXa are the only materials that IGSHPA formally approves for use in the buried portion of a closed-loop GSHP system. Per Section 1C of IGSHPA's Design and Installation Standards:

The acceptable pipe and fitting materials for the underground portion of the ground heat exchanger are high-density polyethylene (HDPE), as specified in Section 1C.2 and cross-linked polyethylene (PEXa), as specified in Section 1C.32.

These recommendations were born out of a combination of past experience along with the acknowledgement of the many advantages that polyethylene (PE) has to offer. Aside from being the industry standard, here are the top 5 reasons for using PE over the alternatives:

1 Affordable & Available

Polyethylene is used in a wide range of applications such as food packaging, plastic bottles and bags, pool liners, and of course, geothermal piping. It is a commodity plastic and is among the least expensive types to make. Geothermal grade polyethylene pipe is mass produced and readily available in the marketplace at commodity prices.

2 Durability

Geothermal heat pump systems operate under a wide range of temperatures and pressures. It is normal for ground loop temperatures to swing from 25-30F in heating mode to 90-100F in cooling mode. Thermal expansion and contraction of the piping due to temperature swings will cause system pressures to follow suit.

Polyethylene is highly resistant to damage due to fatigue (as well as damage due to abrasion, weathering, corrosion, etc.). It can withstand the abuse of pressure fluctuation due to temperature changes, as well as the abuse of being transported and handled on the jobsite. According to the Plastic Pipe Institute, it can even withstand damage due to an earthquake:

The toughness, ductility and flexibility of PE pipe combined with its other special properties, such as its leak-free fully restrained heat fused joints, make it well suited for installation in dynamic soil environments and in areas prone to earthquakes.

The durability of PE pipe is tough to beat (pun intended).

3 Installation Ease

Mechanical fittings are not necessary when PE pipe is used. Simple heat fusion techniques are used to join pipe and fittings together in a leak-free, virtually fail-proof manner. Even if leaks or other errors occur, they are extremely easy to fix.

PE pipe is also relatively flexible, lightweight and very easy to manage on the jobsite. Pipe coils are generally available for purchase in any 100-ft increment, leaving it to the installer to pick the length that best suits the project without the hassle of a special order.

4 Service Life

The life expectancy of polyethylene is greater than any mechanical component inside of the building, and even the building itself. According to Chapter 7 in the Handbook of PE Pipe:

The service life of HDPE pipe manufactured from today’s materials is expected to exceed 100 years.

In fact, most pipe manufacturers offer a 50-year warranty to guarantee that the pipe will perform according to specifications without failure of the material itself.

5 Maintenance Free

The long service life coupled with the use of heat fusion in lieu of mechanical fittings virtually eliminates the need for maintenance on the pipe itself. Once installed, the buried ground loop will be a permanent fixture on the property for as long as there is a building to heat and cool.

Polyethylene is also corrosion resistant and inert to most chemicals. It does not promote biological growth and helps to minimize the amount of water quality-related issues typically associated with a water-source HVAC system. Alternative piping materials such as steel, copper and galvanized iron are much more demanding from a maintenance point of view.

All things considered, HDPE and PEXa are far and away the most practical choice for geothermal loopfield construction.

Notes:

¹GeoPro’s Importance of Grout TC illustrates the fact that pipe is a very small portion of the overall thermal resistance in a loopfield. In fact, LoopLink PRO can be used to show that the thermal resistance of a basic HDPE or PEXa u-bend accounts for only 10%-12% of the overall total.

²Refer to IGSHPA's Design and Installation Standards for further information on pipe manufacturing methods and materials, pressure ratings, dimensions, tolerances, etc.

Understanding Auto-Header

In LoopLink^™ PRO we spent a lot of time on header design. We spent so much time on it in fact, most users will never need to spend more than a few seconds on the page. But the speed with which the auto-header function does its job, belies the complexity and importance of what it is doing.

This article describes generally how the LoopLink^™ PRO auto-header system works so it feels less magical and becomes more useful.

Fixed Assumptions

In order to automate the design of your loopfield headers, the LoopLink^™ PRO auto-header tool was built using three fundamental assumptions.

• Headers are broken into evenly-sized groups of bores we call circuits.
• Circuits are designed using step-down, step-up reverse-return principles (SDSU-RR).
• Regardless of u-bend material being used, the header pipe is constructed using HDPE.

We arrived at these assumptions through our own experience and by reviewing hundreds of header designs from other engineers and system designers. From our research, we have found that this method of piping design is the most common and least error prone.

Basic Logic

With those assumptions set, the auto-header function follows a pretty simple set of rules based on IGSHPA's Design & Installation Standards and supplemented by best practices. The scope of the problem is bounded first by the pipe sizes you select to include. After that, we simply analyze the theoretical velocity and pressure drop through a section of pipe and make a choice as to which pipe diameter makes the most sense to minimize head loss while maintaining the minimum velocity required for the flushing process.

You Choose the Available Pipes

The smallest pipe size available is always the diameter and dimension ratio of your U-Bend selection. When your header is initially designed, LoopLink^™ PRO will by default use the same dimension ratio as your U-Bend selection for all sizes of pipe. After that, you can select the nominal diameter and dimension ratio pipe you would like to include in your design.

So, if for example you wanted to design headers to skip 1.25” pipe, all you would do is turn off 1.25”. If you want everything larger than 2” to be DR 13.5… turn those pipes on.

LoopLink^™ PRO will only design your headers using the pipe sizes you specify.

When to Step

LoopLink^™ PRO is designed to first minimize head loss then maintain minimum flushing flow velocities. The minimum flushing flow velocity is defaulted to 2ft/s based on IGSHPA's Design & Installation Standards. That said, you can easily override this value if specified by local code or as a matter of professional preference.

LoopLink^™ PRO will first determine the smallest available pipe size that will result in a head loss value that is less than 3 ft. H₂O per 100 ft. of pipe length but is still capable of maintaining the minimum flushing velocity specified in that section.

At every intersection where the header will ‘feed’ a loop, the loop’s design flow is subtracted from the total flow required to provide design flow to the last bore in a circuit. The auto-header then decides if the next section of pipe should be the same size as the last or if a diameter change is needed to minimize head loss and maintain flushing velocity.

The process is exactly what you would do if you were solving the header on paper… just faster and with a lot less eraser debris on your desk.

You Can Step In

LoopLink^™ PRO does its best to behave like we do during header design but it isn’t always practical or reasonable to program common sense choices that fall outside of design standards. Sometimes an engineer needs to step in and apply their experience. Which is why we included manual edit mode.

This allows you to start with an excellent base header configuration and quickly apply changes to make the design your own. The system will even warn you if you fall outside of the standards and provide you with feedback that will help you choose if the decision is appropriate.

The auto-header isn’t meant to take the designer out of the equation. It is meant to take the tedium out of your design process so that you can iterate and optimize quickly to find the best solution for your application.

What is a Geothermal Vault?

By, Ryan Carda

Simply put, a vault is a buried structure that houses an external manifold for a geothermal loopfield. Think of it as a buried mechanical room where your manifold will go. Simply climb down the ladder through the built-in manway to gain access.

For large systems, it usually does not make sense to connect all of the ground loops with a single pair of supply-return lines without first breaking the field into smaller parallel circuits. For example if you had a 100-bore system, you may decide to to break the field into 10 circuits with 10 bores connected to each circuit (or 5 circuits of 20 bores each for that matter).

By doing so, you can more easily:

• Flush and purge the ground loop to remove air and particulates prior to system startup
• Balance flow to each circuit
• Measure the performance of each circuit (flow, temperature, pressure drop, etc.)
• Isolate circuits in the event that a problem arises rather than being forced to shut down the entire field for repair

When breaking the field into multiple parallel circuits, proper SDSU-RR header design becomes critical to ensure that adequate flushing velocities and head loss characteristics can be achieved. The Auto-Header tool in LoopLink^™ PRO simplifies this (formerly cumbersome) task.

Manifold Options

With the field broken into multiple circuits, you will need to incorporate a manifold somewhere in the piping system to combine those circuits to a single supply return line before connecting to the circulating pumps (whenever a centralized pumping system is used - a topic for another day).

There are two basic options when it comes to manifold location - placement inside or outside of the building. An inside manifold will typically be located in the mechanical room. An outside manifold is buried and typically located in a vault or valve pit.

Inside Manifold (No Vault)

Outside Manifold (Buried Vault)

Why Use a Vault in the First Place?

Per IGSHPA’s RLC Design & Installation Guide:

In any installation, the exterior portion of the ground loop piping should always remain buried 4-6 feet below the ground surface (which will be the depth of the header trench).

Additionally, per Paragraph 1D.3 in IGSHPA’s Design & Installation Standards:

All mechanical connections must be accessible.

With an inside manifold, this problem takes care of itself. With an outside manifold, all mechanical fittings (such as butterfly valves and P/T ports) being used need to be accessible in some way for maintenance, performance checking, flushing/purging, etc., which is the primary purpose of a vault.

Factors to Weigh

The decision whether or not to use a vault is project-specific. Generally speaking, these are the things you should think about before making your decision:

• Available space in the mechanical room
• Distance from the loopfield to the building
• Cost for labor and materials
• System operating costs
• Plans for future addition/expansion

Safety Considerations

There are two primary OSHA Standards that must be considered in every vault design.

• OSHA Standard 1910.146 Permit-required confined spaces which includes discussion of entry/exit ways, permitting, air quality, ventilation, etc.
• OSHA Standard 1926.1053 Stairways and ladders which provides the ladder requirements for use in entry/exit of the structure.

If you plan to incorporate a vault into your next geothermal loopfield design, read 5 Features of Good Vault Design to ensure that it is well-suited for the application.

Introduction to LoopLink PRO

Introduction to LoopLink PRO presented by Doug Carruthers on Vimeo.

Learn about the features and basic navigation of LoopLink PRO commercial geothermal design software. This video is a recording of a webinar held on February 5th, 2016.

In the interest of time, participant questions during the presentation and the Q&A session from the end of the presentation have been redacted.

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You can learn more about LoopLink PRO features or sign up for a free one week trial of LoopLink PRO at looplinkpro.com

Meet The LoopLink Family

By, Doug Carruthers

In its first incarnation, LoopLink^® was the name we put on our residential and light commercial geothermal design software. Over time, we thought up great services that were related to LoopLink^® RLC but needed to be separately accessible because of who they would best serve.

Last year, 2015, became the year that we had to figure out how to deal with some of those ideas. More to the point, we had to figure out what to call them. We wrote lists and lists of names but none of them seemed to stand up. Maybe it was just how comfortable we were with the sound of 'LoopLink' but nothing else seemed to fit.

In the end, we decided to create some short term confusion and keep LoopLink as the family name while adding a short descriptor to the end to distinguish each product in the family. Ultimately this makes a lot of sense because the services share resources. Here is how things break down:

LoopLink^® RLC

Our flagship service, LoopLink^® RLC is designed for the Residential and Light Commercial geothermal design market. It is a powerful web-based software service that helps system designers size loopfields and do advanced economic analysis for homes and office spaces.

It is built specifically for designing ground heat exchangers for buildings with low occupancy schedules, negligible internal gains and low to moderate ventilation requirements. Basically, anything you can reasonably model using ACCA Manual J.

LoopLink^® PRO

LoopLink^® PRO is also a web-based ground loop design service but it is specifically designed to handle commercial building loads. PRO is built to be extremely flexible and handle designs that range in complexity from a simple block load all the way out to campus systems with each building broken into individual zones.

Buildings requiring detailed load analysis with tools like eQuest or TRANE Trace are what we designed PRO to handle.

LoopLink^® GSE

LoopLink^® GSE is our geothermal savings estimation service. It allows companies large and small to access a powerful performance estimation engine without having to maintain their own estimation models. Subscribers to the service build their own interfaces and submit data including location, square footage and a few other variables. GSE looks up the location, figures out the typical local weather and estimates the energy and cost of heating and cooling the space with geothermal vs. a traditional comfort system.

What Does It Cost To Own Your Ground Loop Design Software?

By, Doug Carruthers

Its no secret that there are alternatives to LoopLink^® PRO available to commercial geothermal designers. So it is worth the time to look at the long term cost of our subscription model as compared to our leading competition.

LoopLink^® PRO Pricing

LoopLink^® PRO is a subscription based software that runs $50/month. There are a ton of features that you get with PRO but for the purposes of this article, the three most important things to remember are:

1. You can cancel at anytime.
2. LoopLink^® PRO upgrades are free. Everything from equipment data to calculation methods is upgraded automatically at no additional charge.
3. You can access LoopLink^© PRO from any internet enabled device with a modern browser.

The Competition

The competition has multiple 'tiers' of commercial product so for simplicity, lets consider their lowest cost option which is roughly $3000 to buy initially. Installed software requires upgrades. Assuming you stay current and follow the typical two year upgrade cycle, you are in for about $300 every two years.

Running The Numbers

There is a pretty simple equation for figuring out the break even point between the two. I'll skip some of the algebra but walk you through the important steps.

$3000 + ($300 * (years-1)/2) = $50/month * 12 months/year * years
$3000 + ($150 * years) - $150 = $600 * years
years = $2850 / $450
years = 6.333

Note that on the left side of the equation where we are calculating the cost of owning the competitor's software we just assumed that the upgrade cycle starts two years after you purchase. Also, we use (year - 1) because in the first year, you hopefully wouldn't need to purchase an upgrade.

The Results

It takes 6 years and 4 months before a subscription to LoopLink^® PRO costs as much as installed software. After that, they have us beat and you will spend more on a subscription than buying the software outright. That is of course if you ignore one really nice feature of LoopLink^® PRO subscriptions— you can cancel at anytime.

You don't have to maintain a constant subscription to LoopLink^® PRO. So, if you design for 6 months out of a year, keep your account for those 6 months and cancel until you need us again. Your projects will be exactly where you left them. You can use the same formula but switch the 12 months on the right to 6.

With the change, the break-even point extends to 19 years before its cheaper to own the competitor's software.

The Hidden Costs Of Installation

Time is money as they say so it is important to also consider the amount of time owning software will consume. It takes time for you to install software and upgrades, download and install patches, deal with IT to get things working etc. What happens if you get a new computer? You have to do it all again. Those costs aren't part of subscribing to LoopLink^® PRO because there is nothing to install and upgrades just happen.

The Value Of Access

These days, no one has just one computer or device that they use all of the time. Installed software has that requirement built in. With LoopLink^® PRO on the other hand, you have access to your projects and the software any time, any place. All you need is an internet connection and a device with a modern browser. Honestly, how often are you without those two thingss?

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You can learn more about LoopLink PRO features or sign up for a free one week trial of LoopLink PRO at looplinkpro.com

LoopLink RLC or LoopLink PRO: Which Is Right For You?

By, Ryan Carda

We make web-based ground loop design software, and we are very proud to now say that we have two products in our arsenal:

• LoopLink RLC is for residential & light-commercial applications
• LoopLink PRO is for commercial applications

Both have their place. With the recent addition of LoopLink PRO to our offering, we're now being asked about when it's appropriate to use one over the other. Given the fact that heat transfer in the ground is the same in a residential system as a commercial, which one do you need for a given application?

Even though PRO can be used to design a system of any size and scope (residential or commercial), RLC will make life much easier for the residential designer. This article will help you decide which is better-suited to meet your needs.

What is a “residential” system?

Generally speaking, you can use “residential” ground loop design software on any building where its heating and cooling loads are closely tied to weather conditions. In such a system, there is minimal need for consideration of how the building is being occupied or used. There aren't large amounts of internal gains, occupancy rates, ventilation requirements, industrial processes, etc.

Examples Include:

• Any size home, no matter if it is large or small
• Multifamily residential buildings such as apartments or condos
• A large warehouse or storage building with little to no internal gains
• Small office buildings with light occupancy schedules and minimal fresh air requirements

The simple relationship of load to outside air temperature can be used to develop a load profile graph, like this one:

Once the building load profile is generated, it is also a straightforward process to determine how much a heat pump will have to run, how efficient it will be, how much it will cost to operate, how much will required of the ground loop, etc. Because of the predictable behavior of a residential building, RLC can use a small amount of information (peak heating and cooling loads along with project location) and use it to perform a full-fledged energy analysis. It doesn't really matter how big the system is. As long as there is a linear relationship between the building loads and the outside air temperature, the bin method can be used to predict how much heating or cooling will be required.

What is a "commercial" system

For a commercial building, the energy modeling process is quite a bit more involved. The heating and cooling load profile depends on how the building is being used rather than the weather conditions. For example, a manufacturing facility, large office building, or data center would very likely need cooling even when the outdoor air temperature is 40°F. This is a stark contrast to a “residential” application that would definitely need to be heated to maintain thermostat set point at the same temperature. A load profile for a commercial building could look something like this:

Image Courtesy of Ed Lohrenz, GEOptimize

As you can see in the graph, some cooling is required even during the cold winter months. To accurately determine the heating and cooling requirements for a commercial building, you need to consider:

• Occupancy (number of people)
• Occupant activity levels (exercising vs. sitting at a desk, etc.)
• Ventilation (fresh air)
• Light power density
• Internal gains – amount and type depends on the building
  
  • Offices - computers, monitors, copiers, appliances, etc.
  • Manufacturing facilities - CNC machines, paint booth, welders, etc.
  • Restaurant – range, oven, coolers, etc.

Not only do you need to consider how much each process or component will contribute to the heating and cooling requirements for a building, but you also need to consider when each is used (e.g. – schedule). Attention to detail is critical for this time-consuming process.

There are many programs that are well-suited to model a commercial building. These programs use the hour-by-hour method rather than the bin method for the energy calculations. Here are a few examples:

• Trane TRACE 500
• Carrier HAP
• E-Quest
• EnergyPlus

A good portion of the heavy lifting (e.g. - the energy model) is done outside of ground loop design software. But by decoupling the energy model from the ground loop design calculations, you can analyze a much more complicated system. Each of the programs listed above will export the data in various formats. The outputs are the result of a lot of hard work but are condensed into a usable format that can be directly imported to PRO.

As previously mentioned, PRO could be used to design the ground loop for a residential system. However, it doesn’t perform energy modeling calculations so, you would need to obtain that information elsewhere. For a residential application, it would save a lot of time and effort to use LoopLink RLC for the design because it will perform the energy modeling calculations for you.

It’s all about the energy.

When trying to decide which program is for you, remember the key distinction between residential and commercial applications from a ground loop design standpoint. Ask yourself this question:

Can the heating and cooling requirements for a building be accurately predicted with weather data alone, or do you also need to know something about building usage and its schedule?

Once you’re able to answer, hopefully it will be easier to choose between LoopLink RLC and LoopLink PRO moving forward.

Things You Might Miss In LoopLink PRO’s Project List

By, Doug Carruthers

The key to making any program useful is to make it easy to use. Interactions like accessing projects are secondary to most of our users… and that's good. Opening projects should be an ignorable function of the user interface (UI) but to keep the UI clean and simple, we put a lot of effort into subtle capabilities of LoopLink PRO's project list that may go unnoticed if you aren’t looking for them.

The Basics

The project list is broken up into three primary areas which will change position depending on your screen size.

1. Projects: The list of projects in the active folder or filter.
2. Folders: Contains the search bar, fixed project filters, your folders and folders of teammates' shared projects.
3. Notifications: Pending notifications and basic account information.

Projects

Projects are organized by most recently modified. The default view is a listing of all the projects you own.

• Check in and check out projects directly by clicking the and icons respectively.
• Column headings can be clicked to change or reverse sort.
• Click the to go straight to the report generation page.

Folders

The folders panel allows you to organize and find projects quickly. This is especially handy once your project list grows.

• Search is case insensitive so 'LoopLink PRO Is Awesome' is the same as 'looplink pro is awesome'.
• Folder counts reflect search results.
• Folders can be renamed. Just double click the area next to the name.
• Folders can be deleted. Again, just double-click the area next to the name.
  
  • Projects in deleted folders are not deleted. They are marked as 'Unfiled'
• Add projects to folders by drag and drop
• Organize your folders with drag and drop
• Access and recover your deleted projects by clicking on the trash can.

Notifications

The notifications section of the page is pretty self explanatory. As you receive notifications about share requests, hourly import status etc. they will appear in your notifications list. You can handle all of the available actions on each notification directly through this panel or through the account menu (accessed by clicking your initials in the top right corner of the screen.)

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You can learn more about LoopLink PRO features or sign up for a free one week trial of LoopLink PRO at looplinkpro.com

Attention IGSHPA Members

By, Doug Carruthers

Geo-Connections is proud to announce that all active members of IGSHPA (International Ground Source Heat Pump Association) are now eligible to receive 20% off LoopLink RLC and LoopLink PRO subscriptions.

LoopLink PRO already supports the discount as part of the sign up process and through your account settings. A complete integration into our LoopLink RLC billing system will take us a little bit of time to complete but we didn’t want to wait to announce this fantastic new IGSHPA member benefit. Simply let us know that you are an IGSHPA member and we will apply the discount to your account after it is verified through IGSHPA.

This new member benefit offsets IGSHPA membership dues by as much as $120 per year per Geo-Connections software. So, if you work in just residential or just commercial loopfield design, your IGSHPA membership will only cost $5.00.year. If you work in both residential and commercial ground loop design, maintaining your IGSHPA membership now earns you up to $240/year in savings... so membership pays you back $115. The discount is good for as long as your IGSHPA membership is current and will apply to new and existing accounts.

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You can learn more about LoopLink PRO features or sign up for a free one week trial of LoopLink PRO at looplinkpro.com

Geo-Connections: Looking Forward

By, Doug Carruthers

We are extremely happy to announce that LoopLink^® PRO, our new commercial design software is now available to the public. With the release of LoopLink PRO, we are planning on some significant changes and improvements to all of the other areas of our business and we wanted to take a minute to share with you what we have planned as we look forward to the year ahead.

Updating All Websites

In the near term, we will be rolling out an updated design for our company site, LoopLink^® RLC and the GeoConnected blog. Each site will have its own distinctive look but there will be common elements that will make accessing information across all of our sites faster and easier. As part of the redesign, we will improve the mobile friendliness of all of our web properties.

LoopLink RLC Updates

We have never hid the fact that we are a small team. While that size provides us some of our greatest strengths, it also gets in the way of us taking on some of the projects that we really want to get done. With LoopLink^® PRO up and running (like a giant geothermal bull of awesomenessitude), we will be turning our focus back to our flagship residential/light commercial program and working through some pretty major changes. Including:

New Look and Feel

We will clean up the existing design and make the site more responsive for mobile users. Many of the design cues will be pulled from the LoopLink^® PRO interface so if you are curious where we are headed, you should check out the PRO interface.

Server Side Power Up

We will be making some critical changes to the parts you don’t see that will help us to improve the parts you do much more efficiently moving forward.

Payment System Upgrade

We will be making significant changes to our check out process that will force changes in account management and will affect current users’ automatic renewal schedule. We will contact all users prior to taking this step with details about what to expect and how you will be impacted.

Headloss & The Upgrades

There are a lot of users who have requested the inclusion of a head loss calculator into LoopLink^® RLC. It will be added this year. In addition we have a few other upgrades and tweaks on our to-do list to tackle. We will determine the short list soon and fill you in on the details.

Training Opportunities

Our roots have always been in education. Over the past year, we have worked hard to expand and improve upon our online courses for geothermal professionals. With the help of our friends at HeatSpring we are proud to offer the following courses.

Entry Level Geothermal Professional

Provides a basic overview of GSHP design, installation, etc. for those looking to learn without the need for certification.

Geothermal Designer Boot Camp + LoopLink Certification

For the residential or light-commercial system designer looking to learn advanced design principles. This course provides hands-on design experience through homework problems that are completed using LoopLink. Get a free LoopLink RLC license when you register.

IGSHPA Geothermal Installer Accreditation

For anyone looking to open themselves to new markets through a working knowledge of GSHP technology . This is a preparation course for the IGSHPA Accredited Installer exam and covers all aspects of GSHP systems - economics, design, installation and commissioning.

IGSHPA Vertical Loop Installer Accreditation

For drilling professionals interested in mastering GSHP installations. This is a preparation course for the IGSHPA Accredited Vertical Loop Installer exam and covers all aspects of GSHP systems - economics, design, installation and commissioning.

IGSHPA Certified GeoExchange Designer (CGD)

For the commercial system designer looking to obtain the highest certification available in the world of GSHPs. This is a preparation course for the IGSHPA CGD exam and provides hands-on design experience through homework problems that are completed using LoopLink PRO. Get a free LoopLink PRO license when you register.

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You can learn more about LoopLink PRO features or sign up for a free one week trial of LoopLink PRO at looplinkpro.com