Originally published February 8 2006
WaterFurnace Inc. aims to produce large quantities of geothermal heat with only minor alterations to the environment
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Journal Gazette reporter Rosa Salter Rodriguez notes that oil continues to get more expensive, and the United States is having to go to greater and more drastic lengths to get it, so it is comforting that WaterFurnace Inc.'s representatives are seeing increased interest in their technology that heats and cools homes by using energy stored underground, with little to no disturbance of the natural environment.
Driving to WaterFurnace Inc.'s corporate headquarters near Fort Wayne International Airport, one has an indelible impression of one of Indiana's biggest natural resources.
It's double the number of people this year calling in asking for a geothermal quote," says Mike Miller, sales consultant for Korte Does It All, a Fort Wayne heating and air conditioning contractor that installs geothermal systems.
Interest in geothermal spiked after this year's hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, according to Jessica Commins, spokeswoman for the Geothermal Heat Pump Consortium in Washington.
"Our manufacturers are telling us their shipments have doubled in the last three months, and we believe that this is due to natural gas prices that shot up around Hurricane Katrina," she says, adding that geothermal had been shown to cut home heating and cooling bills by 50 percent to 70 percent, even before recent price increases.
When the house was being built, Stetzel decided to use a pond he'd already had constructed on the property as part of a geothermal system.
"If we can save the homeowner more than $30 a month on heating costs, which is more than possible, then that homeowner is getting a positive cash flow from Day One," Kuffner says.
Overall, contractors say, perhaps less than 5 percent of the area's homes are geothermal -- slightly more than the less than 1 percent of homes nationally, according to Commins.
She says there are about a million geothermal installations nationwide, but she did not have a breakdown of how many are in homes.
Much of the increase, he says, has come from owners of existing homes who are converting from a conventional furnace system, either because their system has come to the end of its lifespan or they're tired of high heating bills.
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