Real Estate developers in Ontario and beyond are increasingly adopting ground-source heat pump systems—known as geoexchanges—to deliver heating and cooling for new multi-family residential projects. Geoexchange systems offer a compelling return on investment through operational cost savings, longevity, and a smaller carbon footprint. Proper system design is a critical first step in a successful geoexchange project, regardless of whether a developer chooses a typical design/build model or new innovative Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS) financing options.
Diverso Energy’s EaaS Model: Multi-Res Heating and Cooling Reimagined
Traditionally, the upfront cost of a geoexchange system exceeded that of conventional systems. But the elimination of heat rejection and injection equipment (typically fluid coolers and boilers) can result in significant operating reductions beyond heating and cooling energy savings. Over the lifetime of a building developers realize substantial improvements to Net Operating Income while also increasing its valuation. EaaS solutions have revolutionized geoexchange adoption, helping developers reduce upfront capital expenditures by engaging third-party providers who operate like a traditional utility.
Diverso Energy pioneered the EaaS geothermal model that emulates conventional gas and electric utilities by converting capital expense into an operational cost through Thermal Energy Purchase Agreements. Building owners and tenants benefit from the defined-cost, low-carbon heating and cooling solution over a 30-year term that also future-proofs projects against evolving green standards and carbon taxes.
EaaS allows developers to incorporate innovative technologies into their building designs while maintaining business as usual from a financial and risk perspective. The EaaS model combined with its unique design methodology puts Diverso in a league of its own.
“The great thing about working with Diverso is that we speak the same language when it comes to the geoexchange world,” says Agustin Olt, Partner at MCW Consultants, an engineering services company. “Having its own in-house engineering team leaves Diverso better positioned to understand the unique challenges of each project and collaborate on solutions.”
The Importance of Proper System Design
No Ontario geothermal company can match Diverso’s in-house system design expertise and experience. Diverso is the only vertically-integrated provider that has designed, built, and managed large-scale geoexchange systems for more than 15 years. Directly managing many of these more than 300 systems provides Diverso with a proprietary repository of operational data detailing how each building’s geothermal heating and cooling system responds to constantly shifting demands such as weather and occupancy.
“The operational experience and data collected provide deep learning that continues to shape our design approach today,” says Tim Weber, Diverso’s CEO and co-founder. “Geothermal is more than a piece of equipment. It’s a living, breathing entity which is far more integrated into the building design than many appreciate.”
Weber says it’s crucial to carefully integrate geothermal design into building plans from the outset to ensure the long-term performance of the combined system. “To do that you have to work with a team that understands the dynamic nature of building HVAC systems.”
From Theory to Practice: Diverso’s Data-Driven Approach
Diverso’s lead engineer Sergio Almeida and his seasoned inhouse engineering team have designed many of the largest, most complex geoexchange systems in North America. Collaborating closely with project architects and systems engineers, the team uses Diverso’s historical data to ensure each system is engineered to deliver long-term performance while minimizing the impact on the client’s capital cost.
Ground source energy systems in large commercial buildings are complex. The temperature of the ground must be considered and balanced with every system within a building envelope. The borefields drilled under buildings act as thermal batteries that connect into the mechanical systems that heat and cool a building. Properly designed, a borefield will support HVAC needs throughout the lifetime of a structure.
“Detailed energy modelling and creative design solutions allow us to continually manage the amount of heat absorbed and extracted from the ground throughout the year,” says Almeida, who co-founded Diverso and developed its data-driven engineering methodology. “This process is extremely detailed and heavily reliant on specialized, proprietary tools and many years of experience designing, installing and operating systems for a variety of buildings across the continent.”
Minimizing Risk, Maximizing Performance: The Power of Experience
Specialized industry software exists to model how a proposed geothermal system will respond to the building’s energy load. But limitations inherent to the software can create huge gaps between building design and eventual operation. It’s Diverso’s years of experience in working with real-world operating data that allows them to anticipate issues alongside the developer’s team to design and optimize building performance.
MCW’s Olt says that when a developer chooses an engineer-of-record for a project a primary objective is eliminating risk factors for the owners and occupants. “Our objective is to deliver innovative and sustainable building engineering designs focusing on safety, reliability and resiliency—and that’s why you want partners and suppliers who have deep expertise in a proven but complex technology like geo.”
Success Through Collaboration: Integrating Geoexchange into Building Design
Once contracted as lead engineer, Olt works with the developer’s in-house team, architects, trades and construction managers to determine if geoexchange is a good fit for the project. A technical memorandum is created by MCW to help potential partners develop more precise proposals informed by initial load estimates specific to the building. This framework establishes baselines, targets and parameters that set common goals for the entire team.
Diverso eliminates guesswork early on by providing exclusive access to its project database that contains years of operational data from buildings across Ontario. This ensures each design is based on real-world data that supports its predictive modeling. The team uses the data as one element of a proven multi-step process to ensure geoexchange makes economic sense for the project.
Energy Modeling: Optimizing the System for Long-Term Efficiency
Energy modelling gauges how much heating or cooling is required based on the daily, seasonal, and annual cycles of the building. This may include a variety of inputs such as number of occupants, the type of lighting used, as well as windows and walls. Mechanical system requirements and site geology are also important.
“Consultants offer a range of energy modeling and geoexchange design services but there are a lot of assumptions baked into results from commercially available software,” says Diverso’s Almeida. “Occupancy and usage are major variables in the energy requirements of a building—so real-world data is invaluable in helping us shape these assumptions—allowing us to go beyond the theoretical to form better models of how buildings actually operate.”
Designing for the Future: Geoexchange Systems and the Building Lifecycle
Design of the ground-coupled heat exchanger, for example, requires consideration of all heating and cooling loads, including the total annual aggregate loads as well as the “worst case” peak loads. The extensive experience of the Diverso team is critical as it works to model conservative peak load estimates from the mechanical team against projected demands of normal operation all while maintaining a fiscal balance for stakeholders.
“Early on we don’t have architectural details on the envelope performance, so we do an experience-based estimate—and we usually fall pretty close within those numbers,” MCW’s Olt explains. “We base our custom technical memo on decades of successful project delivery and best practices developed on geoexchange projects. This allows us to set the stage up front so that we all go in with the same understanding of what we’re going to see over time as the project develops.”
Collaboration in Action: Making Geoexchange Design Buildable
Olt says it’s critical to have everyone at the table—development team, architects, geothermal partners and eventually, construction managers to ensure it can be implemented from everyone’s perspective. “A solution can be right theoretically. But beyond innovative criteria, sustainability targets and budget constraints, most importantly it must be constructible.” That becomes complicated if an EaaS geo representative has to regularly take questions back to a third-party engineering group during the design process.
“The way I’ve seen it work with Sergio and the Diverso team is that we often have design sessions outside the scheduled planning meetings to bounce ideas and discuss approaches. Subsequently they quickly run a model and tells me if it’s feasible or not,” says Olt.
Ongoing collaboration and feedback are critical to achieving a functional geothermal design that is revisited along successive development stages through to completion. Diverso’s Almeida says clarifying roles up front helps avoid miscommunication, creates smoother integration of geothermal with other trades, and can resolve challenges before they escalate.
“We never ask our project partners to do anything that’s unreasonable for their respective role or scope of work,” says Almeida. “We understand and respect everyone’s role in the team and focus our efforts on anticipating issues and offering collaborative solutions. We don’t throw problems over the fence and leave it to someone else to solve.”
As the project moves into the implementation stage, Diverso’s fully integrated construction group works with the construction management team to build the turnkey geothermal system. Consulting during the commissioning stage, the team reviews performance of the installed system in detail to ensure it’s operating as set out in the original design.
Ensuring Long-Term Value: Monitoring and Optimization
After the building is commissioned, it is important the system be monitored over the coming months and years. Diverso’s decades of accumulated data helps continually optimize the building’s operation, comparing its performance against projections and historical data from similar buildings.
Reviews of a building’s energy load profile are an ongoing feature of Diverso’s 30-year EaaS utility model to ensure the system is performing in-line with original design parameters. Major equipment is monitored along with operating data such as BTUs, flow rates and temperatures to and from the ground loop to confirm the system is performing as designed. Building setpoints are adjusted to create a balanced long-term temperature profile.
“We don’t have the luxury of turning over a building and assuming it’s working fine, simply because no one complained,” says Almeida. “Our results are reported quarterly over the entire life of the contract—each design must stand the test of time.”
Diverso’s Blueprint: Engineering the Next Generation of Geothermal Energy Systems
By seamlessly integrating engineering excellence with proven methodologies and real-world performance data, Diverso not only ensures the successful implementation of geothermal systems but sets a benchmark for industry best practices. Their collaborative approach, paired with decades of operational insight, minimizes risk while maximizing long-term value of investments. As developers face increasing demands for sustainable and efficient building solutions, Diverso’s leadership and network of trusted partners continues to evolve, turning complex challenges into practical, future-proofed opportunities.
Topics to Explore Further
For those considering geoexchange systems, our recent expert-led webinar provides a solid foundation. Featuring Diverso Co-Founders Tim Weber and Sergio Almeida, along with Agustin Olt, Partner at MCW, the session delved into critical, often overlooked topics that must be addressed when optimizing geoexchange systems for building design and performance:
- The Use of Glycol and Its Risks Understand how glycol affects viscosity, flow rate, and heat transfer efficiency, as well as the risks it poses to system performance.
- Proper Borefield Sizing and the Hidden Costs of Downsizing Discover how inaccurate borefield sizing can lead to long-term inefficiencies and unforeseen costs.
- Geothermal-Mechanical System Integration Explore best practices for aligning geoexchange systems with other building systems to ensure optimal performance.
Armed with actionable insights on each topic, attendees left better prepared to ask the right questions of their geothermal and mechanical engineers.