Klamath County geo-heating district feasibility study

Abstract

The results are presented of an agreement between the Klamath County Commissioners and Oregon Institute of Technology Geo-Heat Utilization Center for the conceptual design, cost analysis and plan for space heating a number of public buildings in Klamath Falls, Oregon with geothermal hot water. This project was principally aimed at supplying geothermal heat to ten city and county buildings by hot water extracted from the existing museum well. The supply system is also designed to include the post office and a new building to be built in the vicinity of the courthouse. The fluid would be piped from the museum well to three liquid-to-liquid heat exchangers and returned to the area of the producing well for reinjection into the same aquifer. The study also considered space heating of 98 additional buildings in the downtown business district equivalent to the ten public buildings and incorporating a snow removal grid on Main Street between Eleventh and Fourth Streets. The geothermal fluid would be supplied from wells in the vicinity of Old Fort Road (city police pistol range) and returned for reinjection. Based on the study, the Center has concluded that no major resource or engineering difficulties exist that would prevent the ten-building project from being completed successfully with a significant long-term savings in both scarce fossil fuels and total heating costs. A direct environmental benefit of the large-scale plan would be a significant reduction in air pollutants (16 tons per year) from the burning of natural gas. For a capital investment of approximately $548,900 the delivery system, conversion of building heating systems and waste disposal could be accomplished for the ten buildings with potential expansion to twelve.