In Elgin, Illinois, Sherman Health is building a new hospital that will be heated and cooled by a 15-acre lake. By using the 17-foot deep artificial lake’s natural geothermal properties the hospital will be kept at an even temperature all year long, saving the facility a cool $1 million in utility bills.
When the new Sherman Hospital opens in 2009 the 645,000 square foot facility will be equipped with the largest geothermal lake heating and cooling system of its kind in the nation. The lake will be lined with clay, filled with rainwater and having its bottom filled with coils that will circulate its liquid with a heat-pump system.
The circulation solution will offer enough heating or cooling properties to regulate the temperature in most of the hospital rooms. This lake loop system will take advantage of a constant temperature of 55-degrees F at the bottom of the pond.
Besides just being a vessel for heating and cooling the lake will also be stocked with fish, which visitors and patients can feed. Geothermal may as hot of a marketplace as solar right, but you just can’t argue with saving a cool million, now can you?
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