ECONAR^® Commercial Case Study
FarmTek™ Supply - Dyersville, Iowa

The new FarmTek™ Supply facility in Dyersville, Iowa, is the Midwest outlet for this fast growing, Connecticut based, international order company that specializes in products for farms and agricultural industry. The building is 30 feet high and encloses more than 1.65 million cubic feet of space. The building was designed for 9,000 square feet of mezzanine space, if needed. The facility has a very sophisticated GeoExchange system, using both closed and opened loop systems. The open loop discharge soaks the closed loop field to increase heat transfer. The HVAC distribution system is based on water-to-water heat pumps. It employs radiant floor heating. Cooling is by large fan-coil units, which take advantage of a two-coil configuration to provide direct loop of groundwater cooling when temperatures are appropriate. The closed loop provides space conditioning for about 54,500 square feet and the open loop supports about 18,000 square feet. The two systems serve different sets of heat pumps for the different areas, but are controlled by the same GE Fanuc controller and a personal computer with Cimplicity software. The controller and PC operate heat pumps as needed, using a control logic that equalizes operating time on the units. It also sequentially stages three 20 ton slinky circuits.

Geo$ense™

Interstate Power Company™ (Dubuque, Iowa) provided rebates for installation of FarmTek’s geothermal system. Based upon Interstate’s analysis, a 58% savings is anticipated when compared to the cost of a conventional heating and cooling system.

Physical Data

• 73,500 square feet
  
• 3 circuits of 20 – 650 foot slinkies at 7 feet deep
  
• Utilizes 6-GW1200 ECONAR Hydronic Heat Pumps
  
• Architect – Allen & Urban Arch., & Const. Mgrs., Inc., Dubuque, IA
  
• Engineer – Terra-Therm Inc., New Richland, MN
  
• Mechanical Contractor – Meyer Mechanical, Dyersville, IA
  
• Distributor – Terra-Therm Inc., New Richland, MN

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