Group 12 Nick Carcione.6, Michelle Fischer.766, Alex Short.329, Axel Vickery.23 Geothermal Well7 Back in 2013, five 11-story residence buildings on the Ohio State University's South Campus were renovated as part of their South High-Rise renovation project. As part of the renovations, air conditioning was added to the rooms in these five buildings, partially utilizing a geothermal well system for both heating and air conditioning. The system was built to have a maximum capacity of 1,500 refrigeration tons. However, in November 2013, the system only used a maximum of 400 refrigeration tons, even though temperatures dropped down into the teens. As a result, Student Life at the Ohio State University is now considering running heating water pipes to one or both of two additional locations: the Union and/or Drinko Hall. Student Life is curious as to whether the geothermal well system would provide enough savings to justify spending $600,000 to run pipes to Drinko Hall, spending $300,000 to run pipes to the Union, or $1,100,000 to run pipes to both locations. The purpose of this analysis is to financially justify the addition of a piping to the Ohio Union as well as Drinko Hall. Currently, the geothermal well system is operating far under capacity, Through this analysis, it will be determined whether or not itis financially justifiable to spend the $1,100,000 to add piping to the union and Drinko Hall in order to use the full capacity of the geothermal well of 1,500 refrigeration tons. First, a rate of utility must be determined in order to find what the cost of steam heat and electricity is. This will help decide if itis financially smart to continue adding geothermal piping to the existing system. It must be determined if it is much more efficient to use the geothermal system to its maximum capacity. The comparison of amount of capacity used compared tosavings will justify this. Both of these factors must be compared in order to decide which project (if any) should be pursued by Ohio State Office of Student Life Economically speaking there are a quite a few factors that must be taken account of when considering the construction of additional pipes. How much will the crew needed to install the pipes into the ground cost? How much will the expansion of the geothermal well system actually save when added to the Union and/or Drinko Hall? How much will it cost to fence off area that need to be worked on? Is the university making enough money to fund the enterprise in the first place? These are a few factors that should be considered. Assumptions that need to be made for the inputs in the final calculations are how much the two different buildings will actually use of the heating/cooling capacity of the current system, and how much will actually be saved once the system goes in place. These assumptions provide a means in which to estimate how useful the expansion of the geothermal well system will actually be ‘There are some factors that should be considered when making a recommendation that do not impact the project financially. One factor that should be considered is the amount of time that the project will take. Areas of The Ohio State University Campus would be under construction and fenced off for a period of time which impacts students on campus. The duration of the project should be considered and if it should be broken up into multiple stages. Since campus will already be under construction, the university should consider if it wants to perform any other renovations to the buildings and areas that are under construction. This would be a convenient time to do these, similarly to how some dorms were renovated at the same time that the first geothermal well was buil Environmental factors should be considered as well. If the university expands the current system of geothermal wells, it would be reducing its carbon footprint. Although this does not impact the university financially, it could improve the public's perception. This could lead tofuture benefits such as donations to support the project. These could have a large impact on whether or not the project is pursued because of the benefits that can be reaped. For example, if the University is currently trying to reduce its waste by installing hand dryers in bathrooms. The expansion of the geothermal wells would further help this cause,