WaterFurnace is doubling the footprint of its manufacturing facility in Fort Wayne, Indiana, as geothermal is becoming increasingly popular in commercial and residential markets, owing in part to tax incentives bolstered under the Inflation Reduction Act.
CEO John Thomas spent the second day of AHR Expo in Chicago with his commercial and residential vice presidents of sales and marketing, sharing the company's vision for growth, as well as resources for capitalizing on tax incentives.
“Heat pumps don't just create heat, they move it from an undesirable location that is in cooling mode to a desirable location that is calling for heat. That's a big part of what a distributed hydronic system does,” Thomas said, noting it is not new technology. “It's been around for over 60 years. And we're just continuing to improve it with innovation and investment with some of the latest control and operation technologies.”
WaterFurnace’s expansion, slated for completion in 14 months, will reoptimize the company’s footprint and consolidate all items to run the business under one roof, with added space for further research and development, like for the data center industry.
“Data centers create millions and millions of BTUs per hour, every hour, and in many cases, that heat is just exhausted in the ambient air, even when there may be a building adjacent to it that actually is in need of heat and they're running the boiler in the basement,” Thomas said, highlighting it as an opportunity to “connect those sinks and sources, recycling the heat from where it's not desired and utilize it in spaces where it is.”
For their current 150,000 square foot facility, “our 3 acre pond has been our gas well since 1993,” with loops on the bottom of the pond to reject heat and use the water feature as a heat source.
“It heats and cools the entire building, the only fossil fuel we use is to operate the brazing torches to do the brazing that we need to produce the units we’re building every day. So we like to live by example,” Thomas said.
Paul Selking, commercial VP of sales and marketing, added the tax credit from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act allows building owners to get anywhere from 30-50% of the cost of the unit back in credit.
“It also made that entire amount available for not-for-profits. Cities, State, local and tribunal governments also have the ability to get that full amount for utilizing commercial geothermal,” Selking concluded. “It’s vastly expanded the reach and the financial payback to consider commercial geothermal on your building project, whether it’s retrofit or new construction, both of those qualify for this new incentive that’s now available.”
WaterFurnace also announced the launch of their new air cooled chiller TruClimate 900 at AHR Expo.
