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August 2007 - Pluckemin/Bedminster, New Jersey

You may be surprised to learn that the centuries-old Jacobus Vanderveer House is “going green,” an ecofriendly term that defines ways in which to practice living, designing and building with natural resource conservation in mind.

During the design phase of the new addition, the Friends, under the volunteer guidance of Trustee and Bedminster Mayor Bob Holtaway, an engineer, adopted a geothermal heating, ventilating and cooling system for the handicapped-accessible structure.

This system will be up and running when we open the wing later this year. A phased approach is in place that will allow this environmentally sensitive system to be retrofitted into the historic main block, replacing our dependency on oil burning fossil fuels.

Going green at the Vanderveer House demonstrates the perfect marriage of 21st century high technology with 18th century American architecture, a feat not without its challenges but one that certainly makes a difference in the greening of our great state. As an emerging premier Revolutionary War museum, we felt we should preserve our earth as well as our history.

Why Vanderveer House is going green:

The Vanderveer House is a Bedminster Township publicly owned building. Since the township went green with construction of the new Town Hall on Miller Lane, it made perfect sense to continue with this alternative-energy saving approach in our building as well.

Geo-thermal systems are highly efficient, quieter, environmentally sensitive, and have low CO2 emissions.

Between rebates and life-span costs, geothermal systems have proven to be a wise investment.

How the Geo-Thermal System works:

The geo-thermal system uses the earth, which provides a uniform water temperature, as a heat source and heat sink. It operates on an open loop system, where two wells are required in the engineering. Holtaway explains the process like this: “The system is a water-to-water heat pump that uses well water, at about 54 degrees, and either takes heat out of the water to heat the house or takes heat out of the house and puts it back into the well, which cools the house.” Basically, ground water is drawn from a local aquifer through one well. In this case, we are restoring the original farm’s well. The water gets passed through the heat pump’s exchanger and is discharged back to the aquifer through a second well.

According to Holtaway, the real design challenge was “finding a location for the second well in the open loop system.” The design had to avoid archaeologically sensitive areas, preserve historic view sheds and take past land use and current water tables into consideration. Designing the interior system was easy. Holtaway said, “We heat up a tank of water in the basement and pump it to air handlers, which will blow air over hot coils to heat the room. When cooling is called for, we chill a tank of water, send it to the air handlers, which then blow air over cold coils to cool the room. This savings in energy makes geothermal one of the best green technologies.” The fight to preserve historic architecture and sites in New Jersey is a mighty struggle.

The award-winning restoration of the Vanderveer House, noted for its outstanding care to preserve original 18th & 19th century architectural details, is also an influential model for integrating green energy techniques within the constraints of a National Historic Landmark building. Taking the initiative to employ environmentally friendly HVAC is just the beginning. Plans for the future include going even greener.

For additional information and details, please visit their website at www.jvanderveerhouse.com.

Submitted: August 15, 2007

The Friends of the Jacobus Vanderveer House