Company: Bosch Thermotechnology Corp.

Customer: Kentlands Community Center, Gaithersburg, Maryland

Installation: Harvey Hottel Inc. (Gaithersburg, Maryland)

Completion: September 2013

Objective: To replace an aging forced-air system with more reliable and energy-efficient HVAC solutions.

Work Completed: In early 2013, the Kentlands Community Center’s 15-year-old air-source cooling system with gas-furnace heating had reached the end of its useful life. The center’s staff selected a geothermal system for the retrofit. Concerns over the amount of drilling that would be required for a closed-loop geothermal system were put to rest through the recommendation of using standing columns, which require the drilling of only two wells.
The column wells were drilled 900 feet into granite and cased to 100 feet. The static water level settled at 14 feet with a pumping yield of 4 gallons per minute (gpm) each. Harvey Hottel Inc. utilized four 6-ton Bosch FHP geothermal heat pumps including single and two-stage equipment to provide heating and cooling for the facility.

Quote: “The design and installation of this geothermal HVAC system is an excellent example of a standing column system. This is a model for others in the community to replicate.” — Tony Bouza, technology development manager,building technologies office, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)

Publication date: 3/2/2015 

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