Iles Des Chenes Firehall, Arena and Community Centre

The Rural Municipality of Ritchot approached Southern Comfort Mechanical to be part of the installation team for a district geothermal system in the town of Ile Des Chenes. The proposal was to tie the arena, firehall and community centre into a common ground loop for the ability to transfer heat from one building to another, thereby significantly increasing the system coefficient of performance.

The geothermal system for the fire hall required space heating and air conditioning, and needed to maintain temperatures with the high load of ventilation required by a public fire hall building. With the full building loads calculated, it was determined that two WaterFurnace 6.0 ton heat pumps, plus the added efficiency of a common ground loop, would achieve all the required heating and cooling parameters.

For the arena, the system needed to cool the ice, heat the bleachers, heat sections of floor and provide heating and air conditioning for the common areas in the building. To accomplish this, the system was designed with both WaterFurnace water-to-water geothermal units, and WaterFurnace water-to-air units. This unit is tied into the common vertical ground loop.