History

In 1994, Charles, Phillip, Garen and Kris Ewbank became accedited installers through the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association (IGSHPA). They recognized a significant hurdle in the design of larger and commercial installations. The hurdle was measuring, not estimating, the thermal conductivity of the land where a ground heat exchanger was to be installed. Designers and builders were reluctant to specify ground source systems because they needed to know, not guess, how the earth would move the energy.
The first discussions to directly measure the thermal conductivity of the earth between the Professors Claesson and Bose is interesting to read as follows: click here (will open in a new browser).
Dr. Jim Bose pressed the need and the Ewbanks built the first commercial in-situ test unit. The first test was done in December of 1994.
In 1995 and 1996 Ewbank performed twenty-six tests for Oklahoma Gas and Electric and the Electric Power Research Institute. To date tests have been conducted throughout the United States and numerous other countries.
Garen Ewbank continues reports and works with trained installers and experienced test providers across the Unitied States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Korea. Ewbank, and our test providers, have conducted well over 2000 tests resulting in thousands of systems and well over 20,000 miles of ground heat exchangers, providing 1500 MW of "green and renewable" capacity.


To learn more about in-situ thermal conductivity testing click here (will open a new browser).


Increasing Capacity by Ewbank In-Situ Test Providers: 30 MW underconstruction with an average installed cost of $1,087,000/MW as of February 2008 and over 2000 MW installed since 2000


Copyright © 2004-2008, Garen N. Ewbank and Ewbank & Associates. All rights reserved.