Purging the lines, safety advice, and recognition

This is one exciting photo!

Really? Two guys (one is out of sight in the big hole) and a very large truck?

Yes indeed. They are doing the final purging of the geothermal wells, and filling them with the ionized water/glycol mix.

Seeing these men on the job means heat in the church is close on the horizon.

Should everything happen in perfect sequence, it could mean heat by next Sunday. But don't pack the sweaters away quite yet. In construction, things rarely happen in perfect sequence....

Thank you for your patience and good humor!

Getting to know your new parking lot:  There are “walking lanes” marked across the middle of the “island” which continue to the 31^st Street sidewalk. Using them is recommended; for now the only alternative is the “driving lanes” – competing with a car is not a good plan. Walk the extra few steps, and be safe. We will do our best to keep the lanes clear of snow this winter.

Yale University Center for Environmental Connections contacted us about our solar and geothermal projects. The Center will let us know when the piece is broadcast on radio and published on their blog, Facebook, and other social media, likely in December.

Lights in the parking lot

We’ve got lights!

Crew was installing them this afternoon.

Soon, HEAT! But not yet this Sunday. Break out the sweaters one more time.

We have curbs!

🎶 This is the way we make our curbs, make our curbs, make our curbs...🎶

Mount Olive made the front page!!

Check out this great article in the Star Tribune from last Monday.  Great picture, Art!!

http://www.startribune.com/mpls-mount-olive-lutheran-church-turns-to-the-earth-to-support-the-heavens/450017873/

The Vault, etc.

Work in the parking lot continued on Thursday with tying together all the individual geothermal wells into large pipes. These are then connected to even larger pipes which pass under 31st St. to get to the building. This process is called "headering."

Parking lot preparation for headering.

Wednesday: Setting the “vault” in place required a very deep hole. The vault is a chamber where the pipes from the 48 geothermal wells come together. The fluid from all the wells feeds a single large pipe for the journey under 31st street to the church. Setting the vault in place requires a careful touch to get it just right - perfectly straight and level. Success first time in. 

Good you saw the vault here. In a few days it will be buried below the parking lot.

Two VERY SERIOUS pumps were delivered Thursday and wrestled down to the boiler room. These pumps move the geothermal water from the building to the field in the parking lot and back again. They weigh about 500 pounds each.

It was a GRATE day at Mount Olive Lutheran Church on Wednesday.   Most of the grates for AC and heat are in place in the sanctuary floor.

Predictions and Solar Operational (we hope!)

Well, it's dangerous to make predictions, but the parking lot should be ready for use by the end of this month, and the new entry door for the Parish House is targeted for Christmas.


AND.........(DRUM ROLL, PLEASE!) By the time you read this our solar electric panels will be hard at work.  

These are the inverters that convert the direct current (DC) provided by the sun, to alternating current (AC) that we can use in the building.   Hope that fair skies dominate!

Xcel Energy technician installing the "net meter", a meter which measures the excess energy that we can sell to Xcel.

A Great Article in The Alley newspaper

This article was recently published in The Alley, a local neighborhood newspaper that serves the Phillips neighborhood.