SIDNEY – Sidney Federal Credit Union's (SFCU) corporate headquarters in Sidney, N.Y. uses green technology to lessen its impact on the community and to save money for its members.
In 2010, SFCU realized that it needed to expand its corporate headquarters on Union St. in Sidney. And they did so. But incorporated into the design of their new building, engineers and architects added a variety of “green” additions to the plans. These additions allowed SFCU to build a 35,000 square foot building in place of their old 11,000 square foot building and pay a fraction of what they used to in utilities.
Kevin O'Hara, Facilities Manager for all nine branches of SFCU, attests that this savings is due fully to the eradication of fossil fuel usage in the new building. “Our electric usage went up, but now we're using zero oil,” said O'Hara, “there are no fossil fuels used in the building except for the backup generator.”
The backup generator was incorporated into the system to protect against a complete, prolonged loss of power to the building. O'Hara said, “the building was designed to keep the drive-up and ATM open for an extended period of time in the case of a complete power outage.”
One of the central features of the new building is the integration of a geothermal heating and air conditioning system. “Geothermal” literally means “heat from the earth.” Below the frost line, the earth temperature remains a fairly constant 47-50 degrees Fahrenheit year round. This steady temperature allows the earth to be a source of heat in the winter and a place to dispel heat in the summer. Geothermal systems, instead of burning fuel for energy, simply use electricity to move heat from the ground into buildings.
The most efficient of fuel-burning furnaces reach efficiencies around 95 percent, while geothermal heating systems have been know to reach efficiencies of up to 400 percent. This is achieved because a geothermal heat pump can transfer four units of heat for every unit of electricity used.
In the building of the SFCU headquarters, they dug 24 wells at 400 feet deep beneath their parking lot. These wells house two, closed loop geothermal systems. This means that the fluid in the wells never comes into contact with ground water. Coursing through these wells is a water and glycol mixture. Glycol is an antifreeze.
As the water moves through these wells it picks up heat from the ground and flows into the building where the heat is harvested. On Jan. 7 of this year, the outside temperature was well below freezing. The water coming into the building was 52 degrees Fahrenheit; as it exited the building it was only 50 degrees Fahrenheit. O'Hara said, “by getting two degrees out of the water we're heating the building comfortably and the pumps are only running at 40%.
In the summertime, these heat pumps work in reverse. They transfer heat from the air in the building into the water, which then flows into the ground to be dispelled. This cooling process means that the credit union does not have to run air conditioners. The computer command center is the only room in the building that has AC, but it only runs from spring to fall.
