In partnership with manufacturer’s distributor Corken Steel Products Company and geothermal driller Bucher Services, ClimateMaster Inc. announced the groundbreaking of Louisville, Kentucky traditional neighborhood development Norton Commons’ North Village residential community. With all 1,800 lots of the community being pre-drilled with geothermal borehole fields, the North Village development will become the largest 100% geothermal residential community in the U.S. to date.
As part of its “More Life Per Square Foot” initiative, Norton Commons selected 100% geothermal heating and cooling for its new North Village for several reasons, including energy savings, improved comfort and reduced environmental impact.
“Geothermal heating and cooling is a natural fit for Norton Commons as we constantly seek to provide our residents with the ultimate lifestyle experience, and all the conveniences of a mixed-use community,” said Charles A. Osborn III, managing director of Norton Commons. “We want our families to do less planning and more living, essentially maximizing every square foot of space so there is more to enjoy and more to do.”
The unit of choice for the Norton Commons project will be the ClimateMaster Tranquility TZ.
According to Osborn, geothermal heating and cooling also “will allow homeowners to truly maximize the space around their home,” as these systems include a network of underground boreholes and just one or two efficiently sized geothermal heat pump units inside each home.
“Geothermal eliminates the need for outdoor air conditioning units, which means less noise and more space for residents to enjoy their yards,” explained Jay Kaiser, director of sales and marketing at Corken Steel. Kaiser’s company is slated as a provider of the
geothermal heat pump units once construction begins on the North Village homes.
Aurora, Indiana-based Bucher Services will begin drilling borehole fields on the first 50 lots next week, and will continue work on another 75 lots later this spring. The company will also drill borehole fields for the remainder of the lots throughout the course of the development’s approximate 10- to 15–year construction period.
According to Kaiser at Corken Steel, the standard lots will include two 400-foot boreholes with 1–in. HDPE pipe to supply two to three tons of heating and cooling capacity to the subsequent homes. Larger lots will feature a three-borehole system, and will supply three to five tons of capacity.
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