Three hundred and fifty feet is a long way down in the Earth. But that’s where TCU has found a power source for the campus’s newest building.

When the Mary Wright Admission Center opens in August, its heating, cooling and water temperature systems will be controlled by ground source heat pumps. It’s called a geothermal energy, and it’s part of the reason the facility will earn gold certification for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).

Taking advantage of the planet’s natural warmth, the building will have 73 wells underneath it to produce energy for power. Unlike home energy systems, geothermal uses heat transferred in a continuous loop underground instead of the air, which cools much faster.

Several area districts have used geothermal heat pump systems for years. “In 20 years, they will all be geothermal,” said Ian Bost for Baird, Hampton & Brown Inc., the surveying outfit working on the project.

TCU’s system will cost about $200,000, said  Tom Hale, the project manager, but “it will reduce the electrical bill by about 20 percent overall. That 20 percent savings for a five-year period pays for the project.”

Bost said the building will be monitored every 20 years to assure that the earth around it is not being damaged by excessive heat. Ground temperature should only increase by one or two degrees within that time period.

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