Ed Lohrenz, B.E.S., CGD

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Ed has worked in the geothermal heat pump industry since the early 1980's. He's been very fortunate to work with a number of people as passionate about the industry as he is, in different parts of the industry and different countries. He's worked as a residential system installer & designer, with manufacturers and equipment suppliers, and for the last 10 years as a commercial system design consultant.

In the 1980's and early 1990's Ed developed some of the first integrated ice rink systems that recaptured waste heat from the refrigeration system for use in other parts of the building, as well as the design and installation of geothermal systems in homes and commercial applications. In 1995, Ed was one of the founders of Ice Kube Systems Inc, a Winnipeg based heat pump manufacturer low-temperature geothermal heat pumps used in ice rink refrigeration and thermal ice storage systems. Ice Kube pioneered the integration of ice rink refrigeration systems, taking advantage of waste heat from the refrigeration heat pumps to heat other parts of the building or other nearby buildings. Approximately 50 to 60 ice rink systems were designed and built during these years. 

In 2006, Ed founded Geo-Xergy Systems Inc, a Winnipeg based engineering consulting firm specializing in the design and implementation of commercial geothermal systems. Geo-Xergy pioneered a number of innovations in the GCHP industry, including one of the first ambient temperature district geothermal utilities (owned and operated by the Town of Gibsons, BC as a geothermal utility) the integration of ice storage to reduce the peak electrical demand of a geothermal system (IKEA Store, Centennial, CO) and the development of a heat dissipation / snow melt system to operate as an auxiliary heat sink for a very cooling dominant retail store (IKEA Store, Centennial, CO). 

Since entering the industry in 1982, Ed has been directly involved in well over 25,000 tons (87,000 kW) of installed heat pump capacity in a wide range of applications across North America and internationally. Applications include single and multi-family residential projects, schools, commercial and industrial buildings, geothermal ice rink and recreational facility projects, agricultural and industrial applications, retail shopping malls and district geothermal energy systems. 

Working on the design of large GCHP systems it became clear that anyone considering the installation of a geothermal system in their projects asked the same question: "What will it cost to install a system, and will it pay for itself?" It was also clear that engineers designing a conventional heating, ventilation and air conditioning system were seldom asked this question. But because a GCHP system was perceived as a "new, renewable technology", and it was typically more expensive to design and build, potential clients needed to justify their decision to install a GCHP system. 

Ed has made presentations about GCHP system design and applications at conferences for the American Society for Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), International Energy Agency, the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association (IGSHPA), Canadian GeoExchange Coalition (CGC) and a number of provincial and state industry associations. Papers about the integration of thermal energy storage and combined heat and power with GCHP systems have been published by ASHRAE. 

In response to these questions, Ed developed the current Certified GeoExchange Designer course curriculum that was recently adopted by IGSHPA / Association of Energy Engineers (AEE). He has presented geothermal design workshops for the CGC, IGSHPA chapters in the U.S., Canada, China, South Korea, and Australia. Optimization of the building to reduce the capital cost of installing a GCHP system and associated GHX, while simultaneously reducing energy cost forms the basis of the design workshop that is outlined below. 

FEASIBILITY:
  • Developing a detailed energy model of a proposed building,
  • Work in an integrated design process with the owner / design team to modify the building heating and cooling loads,
  • Considering different GHX configurations suitable for the size of the site and the geology,
(the economic feasibility of a GCHP system can be determined by using information from the energy model to estimate energy cost of various systems using local utility rates and by modeling the GHX for a proposed system using information from the energy model - providing the estimated energy cost savings and construction cost for the owner to base their decision on)

TESTING:
  • Testing the thermal properties of the geology,
(Confirming the thermal properties, drilling and excavation conditions ensures the assumptions made during the feasibility assessment are reasonable)

DESIGN:
  • Developing detailed designs for the GHX and mechanical system,
(Communicating the design intent to the contractors clearly helps ensure the design is implemented as intended)

IMPLEMENTATION:
  • Developing a quality assurance / quality control (QA/QC) program to ensure the buried heat exchanger is installed as specified,
  • Working with mechanical and GHX installation contractors to implement and commission the designs,
(Most of the GHX is buried, sometimes under a building, and is difficult or impossible to access if there are problems. Ensuring the system is installed correctly by implementing a solid quality assurance / quality control process is important)

OPERATION:
  • Working with the owner / building operator to help them understand the system operation
  • Long term monitoring of the system
(Even if a system is perfectly designed and installed, it's important that the system is operated as intended. Ensuring you, as an owner, or your building manager understands the design concept and operation ensures the system will operate efficiently for many years)

Ensuring systems are well designed and installed is extremely important. Systems that don't deliver the promised savings to the building owner hurt the entire industry...the manufacturers, contractors, system designers, and most importantly...the building owners. Ed has helped develop training workshops for design professionals and contractors. Working with clients to determine why systems aren't working as promised, or systems that have failed, and developing strategies to repair them is crucial to the industry. 

Ed graduated with a degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Manitoba in 1980. 

Contact Ed at: ed@geoptimize.ca