Heartland Community Health Center
Located at 1300 W Devon Ave, Chicago, IL 60660, this health center is the only one in the state of Illinois to achieve LEED Platinum status in sustainability.
A little background of Heartland Health Centers:
“ Heartland Health Centers Devon is the only one of our centers to be entirely designed to our specifications. Since 2014, we have offered primary health care and mental health services at this location. It features 12 exam rooms, a central open air garden, and community room for group wellness and health education activities. It also is the first community health center in Illinois to be LEED Platinum, the highest environmentally sustainable distinction. Green features include a geothermal HVAC system and solar photovoltaic panels.”
- Heartland Health Centers
While this a community based, non-for-profit health center, where 25% of their funds come from the government, and other payments based on: medicaid, medicare, private insurance, sliding fee scale (which is based on income & family size). This did not stop this organization from thinking green, and aiming for sustainability within their new facility.
A few major highlights of how Heartland is sustainable are:
Solar panels along the roof
Patient rooms that bring in natural light
Geothermal Wells that utilize the atrium to collect runoff water
This picture was taken by me in the mechanical space where the geothermal system is hosted. I was fascinated by the fact that the building utilizes geothermal wells as a source of energy and decided to do some research on it.
According to the Green Building Alliance:
Geothermal energy is thermal energy stored beneath the earth's surface.
It is clean, renewable, and popular because it can be harnessed from almost anywhere in the world to produce heat and electricity. Historically recognized as hot springs, geothermal energy is commonly used today for residential heating and cooling, and electricity generation.
At the Heartland Community Health Center Devon, the type of geothermal energy they use is ground source Heating and Cooling. Below is a quick diagram that shows an overview of a ground source geothermal unit.:
Ground Source Heating and Cooling is the most common use for geothermal energy today. As opposed to generally heating an area using heat found in the outside air, a ground source heat pump, or GSHP, taps into the constant temperature found within the earth’s surface.
This system specifically transfers heat from the earth into a building during the winter season and then transfers heat back into the ground during the summer. The temperature can be controlled with the use of heat from the earth.
How Geothermal Heating and Cooling Works
Geothermal heat pumps use a connection of pipes to transfer heat from the ground into a home.
These pipes are filled with a water solution and properly welded to form a continuous loop between the home and the earth.
During colder times, the water solution in the pipes is cooler than the surrounding ground; therefore, it absorbs the energy from underground and carries it to a heat exchanger where a refrigerant (a substance used for transitioning liquid to gas) absorbs the heat.
This refrigerant gas then enters a compressor, where it is pressurized and increased to around 160°F. Next, it travels to an air heat exchanger.
The heat pump’s blower circulates this air, allowing it to increase even more in temperature before being released as heat through a home’s air ducts.
Finally, this cooled refrigerant recycles to begin the process again. For cooling purposes, the process is literally reversed. Since the water solution in the pipes is now warmer than the surrounding ground, heat is released back into the earth.
What are some benefits of using geothermal energy?
It saves on cost, and the return on investment ranges from about 2 to 10 years.
They are durable.
They provide clean energy: no pollutants are emitted, lessens the demand for coal powered plants, and it uses 25%-50% less energy than conventional heating and cooling systems.
There is low maintenance.
Provides comfort year round.
They make very little to no noise.
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