Heat started radiating from the center of the earth about 4.5 billion years ago, according to the Geothermal Energy Association. That landmark in geothermal history was eventually followed by the Commonwealth Building in Portland, Oregon, which became the first commercial building in the U.S. to employ a geothermal system for heating and cooling.
While that building is now an American Society of Plumbing Engineers (ASPE) National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark, the name of the owner or project team who later pioneered the narrower category of geothermal commercial retrofits has been lost in the mists of time. Fortunately, the physics and benefits of a geothermal upgrade are anything but a mystery; in fact, they are pretty straightforward.