Instead of a traditional condenser and furnace, a geothermal heat pump is used to provide heating and cooling to the building.  By extracting heat from the outdoor air, a heat pump can release several times as much heat into the building as the heat value of the electricity it consumes. The heat pump uses a vertical closed loop system, taking advantage of land mass as a heat exchanger to either heat or cool our building.  The geothermal heat in conjunc­tion with active systems will attempt to negate energy use from the grid, an off-grid system.

In addition to using geothermal heating and cooling, the sustainable prototype will also incorporate wind and solar energy to create a system which will essentially allow us to stay “off the grid”.  The multiple horizontal wind axis turbines alone generate half of the necessary power for a typical small commercial building. They are ideal for this area of the country, as the prevailing wind in Greensburg, KS averages 10-12 mph.  Working in union with this system is a photovoltaic array, which is proposed to be mounted on the roof and angled accordingly to provide maximum output.  The combination of these two systems is a key element in our design – the building will rely more on the wind turbines in the winter months, while the photovoltaic array will take on more of a role during the summer, when the days are longer and the prevailing wind is significantly less.