Energy efficiency is one of the features of the new Columbia Shuswap Regional District office due to open this spring. Members of the board of directors voted unanimously to approve $211,206 from the All Electoral Areas Community Works Fund for a geothermal heating system and high-efficiency LED lighting.
Forty-three on-site geothermal wells that are 200 feet deep will provide the water that will produce heating and cooling within the building – at a cost of $160,000. To reduce energy requirements for heating and cooling, heat pumps will capture energy and return it to the system within the building.
Recessed LED lighting will use about one-tenth of the energy of a fluorescent system and has a life expectancy of up to 20 years.
“The cost of geothermal heating was included in the original proposal and therefore this does not represent an increase in costs but rather a request to fund that cost through the community works fund,” advised financial services manager Jodi Kooistra. “The costs for the high-efficiency LED lighting is an additional cost to the regional project price.”
Directors were unanimous in their support.