Doug Lockhart is working hard in his efforts to give back to his community.
Lockhart is the owner of Lockhart Industries, which specializes in geothermal systems, and he and his crew have been busy this week installing a geothermal heat exchanger loop at Cobble Hill Community Hall.
The exchanger loop is being placed across the road from the hall in a field, and the exchanger will take the heat from the ground in the field and move it into the hall to provide environmentally efficient heat.
Lockhart said, compared to the oil the hall used to burn for heat, the exchanger is just a fraction of the cost, and there are no emissions to worry about.
He said installing the exchanger loop is equivalent to taking up to four cars off the road.
Lockhart said the Cobble Hill Community Hall won’t be charged for labour in the installation of the exchanger, and he will keep the cost of the materials as low as possible.
He said the new exchanger loop should provide heat to the hall for the next 30 years.
“I’ve lived in the Cobble Hill area for 35 years and have raised my kids here and the community has always been good to us,” Lockhart said.
“This is my way of giving something back. It’s a heritage building, but with the installation of LED lights awhile ago and now the exchanger loop, it’s one of the oldest environmentally friendly buildings in the area.”
Heat-exchange technology, including Lockhart Industries’ geothermal-energy systems, is considered one of the most efficient and effective sources of heat in the world.
It comes in many forms, including having heat-collecting pipes arranged in coils underground, like the system being installed at Cobble Hill Community Hall, or those pipes can be arranged on the floor of the ocean or lake, which gives up the water’s heat to nearby buildings.
Lockhart Industries recently installed an ocean geothermal system at Shawnigan Lake’s Brentwood College, which is saving the school hundreds of thousands of dollars in heating costs.