Fort Sill Is Betting Big On Geothermal Heating And Cooling

You know those geothermal heating and cooling systems people occasionally talk about putting in their homes?

Fort Sill is taking that idea and going absolutely enormous with it.

More than 1,700 military family homes at Fort Sill are being upgraded with geothermal heating and cooling systems as part of a $63 million modernization project. And when I say "geothermal," we're not talking about some little backyard experiment with a couple of pipes.

They're drilling into the ground all over the post.

The idea is actually sort of wild too. Instead of trying to pull heat out of the air when it's 105 degrees outside, or trying to make a traditional HVAC system work harder when it's freezing, geothermal systems heat and cool a home or building with dirt... And a lot of thermodynamic science, long tubes filled with anti-freeze and encased in mortar, but dirt sounds cooler.

Geothermal Heating And Cooling Is Coming To Fort Sill

The project is expected to reduce energy use across the Fort Sill housing community by about 57 percent, with projected savings of more than $5 million every year.

The upgrades aren't just the geothermal heat pumps, either. The homes are also getting smart thermostats, improved hot water systems and new controls designed to make life on a military post better for those living there.

Fort Sill is actually the third military installation to take on this residential geothermal project.

Why Oklahoma Soil Makes Geothermal Interesting

There is a giant eyebrow being raised over the project. Historically, geothermal hasn't been super-popular in Oklahoma because of our soil. Nice topsoil for the most part, but there's a whole lot of clay underneath us, and that clay can shrink and swell with weather changes... Dry, wet, drought, etc. It moves enough to crack house foundations, so watching how these geothermal systems hold up over time is going to be pretty interesting.

Nobody knows exactly how it'll play out. Fort Sill has some pretty complicated geology too, with clay soils across most of the housing area, along with huge layers of other soil types mixed in.

With a handful of geothermal heat pumps already installed, and the summer drought we've been having, I'd be curious how it's going already.

Could Geothermal Work In Southwest Oklahoma

We spend an awful lot of time in Southwest Oklahoma talking about how brutal the weather is. The heat, the cold snaps, the wind, the constant battle between your thermostat and whatever nonsense Mother Nature has decided to throw at us that week. Now Fort Sill is betting that the answer to some of that is sitting under our feet.

If the projected numbers hold up, this isn't just about making military housing more comfortable. It's about comfort for our military members and families living on post in homes constructed by the lowest bidders.

It'll also be a great trial run for geothermal in SWOK, giving a go/no-go on the future of how we may heat and cool our homes with dirt later on. I hope it's a success.