Waterford, CT – JM Coull, Inc. (JMC) with offices in Shelton is building F.W. Webb’s newest branch facility in Waterford.
JMC has teamed with Design Science architects to deliver the design-build project for April, 2011. Construction began in July on the multi-purpose building, which will feature a showroom for F.W. Webb’s plumbing supply products, office and self-serve areas and a warehouse.
An important feature of the project is the closed loop hybrid solar-geothermal system, to be used for heating and cooling the facility and for hot water. The state-of-the-art system combines geothermal and solar technologies to handle 85 percent of the heating and cooling load for the building.
JM Coull hired Turner Building Science & Design to advise F.W. Webb on the selection and engineering of the hybrid system. In addition to supporting the company’s “Go Green” initiative, an analysis of the high cost and relative inefficiency of propane (the alternative fuel source in the area) demonstrated the financial wisdom of the choice. Jeffrey Harrison, Turner’s senior vice president and the engineer who designed the system, says F.W. Webb can expect to save $24,000 to $60,000 annually, depending upon fluctuations in the cost of propane.
Twelve 500-foot earth coupled boreholes—each of which contains a closed-loop, U-tube heat exchanger—will allow the building to make use of the relatively constant temperatures below the earth’s surface—warmer than the surface in winter and cooler in summer.
Fifty roof-mounted thermal solar panels are integral to the system, harnessing solar energy and feeding it into the 10,000-gallon underground solar storage tank. High efficiency and lower environmental risk- features include the use of a solar panel drain-back configuration using plain water instead of glycol which eliminates the need for efficiency-robbing heat exchangers or glycol additives. A single evacuated tube, high-temperature thermal solar panel will provide domestic hot water.