Service guaranteed by professional engineers, accredited by the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association and by qualified engineers with experience in various provinces of Canada.

Entire projects carried out by the same firm.

Obtaining of federal and provincial subsidies.

Tips and Tricks

Antifreeze; Which one to chose?

You can find numerous types of antifreezes in today's market. There are those that have taken it upon themselves to create their own commercial "brew" with the help of additives and colorants. Nevertheless, two main families of antifreeze are found:

• Alcohols (Ethanol and Methanol)
• Glycols (Propylene)

If the first ones have the advantage of generally being less viscous (to a certain temperature) and less expensive, the second ones have the advantage of being flammable and less toxic.

Is there a type of antifreeze better than another?

Absolutely not. Actually, the best antifreeze is the one that answers best to your performance criteria, at minimal cost. Performance criteria are:

• Viscosity
• Specific Heat
• Toxicity
• Flammability
• Availability
• Reactivity (Maintains long term properties)
• Safety (During transport, handling and usage)
• Price

Who decides which criteria is more important than another?

ANSWER: The client, in close cooperation with the designer. For that reason, the decision to opt for one type of antifreeze over another will change from one project to another. Nevertheless, this choice must be made part of a studied decision and not solely based on price. If we take for example a school based project, the client will most likely be conscientious to antifreeze flammability and toxicity, putting them before viscosity and price.

Is price a determinant factor?

We would lean to answer YES. Now let's study this a little closer. Antifreeze pricing can be up to six (6) times higher from one to another. Seen in this light, the obvious decision would be to opt for the least expensive one. But are we really looking at all the different aspects of decision-making this way? What are the long term impacts of this choice on the project as a whole?

• Maintenance costs
• Automatic system refill costs (in the case of alcohols; it must be homologous for inflammable mixing)
• Pumping energy
• Plumbing material choice impact
• Heat exchange and project thermal performance impact

Another question remains:

Does the price of antifreeze have a significant impact on the cost of the project?

Our experience shows that for a commercial type project, a system in its whole needs between 130 and 200 litres of liquid per installed ton. With concentrations normally varying between 15% and 30% (averaging 22%), we thus need 28 to 44 litres of antifreeze per geothermal ton. In the worst of cases, this would represent an antifreeze cost between $40 and $240 per ton, based on the most and least expensive antifreezes, giving us a fluctuation of less than 3% of the global budget

Instead of trying to use the least expensive antifreeze, we should be trying to optimise the projects design, in a way to reduce the quantity of antifreeze needed. We must not forget that the main reason that antifreeze is used on geothermal projects is to prevent thermal pump heat exchanger breakage, potentially caused by the quick formation of ice crystals on the walls of the exchanger Obviously, this must be done while complying with the requirements and recommendations of the antifreeze manufacturers, thus maintaining antifreeze inhibitor levels against corrosion and bacterial proliferation.

… But this will be the subject of our forthcoming chronicle.

Thank you for your attention
Team Geo-Energy Inc.

Ice Cube thermal stocking technology distributor

News - Octobre 2007

Geo-Energie is proud to announce their participation in the official opening of Excellence Peterbilt Laval which took part on September 20th. During that evening to which several political personalities and many dignitaries assisted, of which the mayor of Laval, Mr.Vaillancourt, Hydro-Quebec officially gave Excellence Peterbilt Laval, an honorary plate underlining its commitment to the optimization of the energy effectiveness.

Excellence Peterbilt Laval is a dealership of the famous Peterbilt heavy duty trucks, considered by many as being the finest in the trucking industry, is the property of the Lussier family in Ste-Julie, Quebec and has made its name in this industry for now many decades.

This new dealership harbours administrative offices, technical departments and a garage with cutting edge technology.

1. A capacity of 150 Tons of geothermics was used as the main heating and air-conditioning source for the whole building. To that were added innovative energy saving technologies.





2. The building as a whole exceeds by 54% the model code in regards to power consumption, thus making Excellence Peterbilt Laval the highest performing dealership in North America.

The project was carried out between June 2006 and March 2007.

An industrial first for Laval and Quebec

A Few Detailed Projects

For more details, download the PDF file of each project by clicking their respective titles