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A makeover to Twin Maples, a 6,500-sq.-ft. mansion and headquarters of The Fortnightly Club in Summit, NJ, coincided with the home’s 100th anniversary and included the installation of a geothermal system to supply heating and cooling. Photos: Marisa Pellegrini
Historical Past Meets Sustainable Future Geothermal system is one of several green technologies that support 1908 structure.
S
ince its construction in 1908, Twin Maples has
organization. “We either needed to sell the building,
treasure like Twin Maples, which is listed on both the
been a silent witness to history, some of it up
because it really hadn’t been properly maintained, or
National and New Jersey Registries of Historic Places.”
close and very personal, including a top-to-bot-
we needed to renovate it to a certain level and then al-
tom makeover that coincided with the home’s 100th an-
low the mansion to become a show house.”
niversary and included the installation of a geothermal system to supply heating and cooling to the house.
With the help of “Green Talk” blogger Anna Hackman, club members considered the energy-efficient options that were available to them to replace the
AFFORDABLE UTILITIES
home’s inefficient steam-heat system. They narrowed
Twin Maples, in Summit, NJ, includes a 6,500-sq.-
“Our goal was to renovate the house so that other char-
their choices to a gas forced-air system or a more sus-
ft. mansion and a carriage house that originally shel-
itable organizations could use it at an affordable rate,
tainable, and also more expensive, geothermal system
tered carriages and horses in two large bays for the
a rate which basically covered the cost of utilities,” re-
to supply heating and cooling to the house.
home’s owner. Today, the neoclassic structure, de-
called Evenson. “And, as we thought about our extraor-
A geothermal system takes advantage of free solar
signed by architect Alfred F. Norris, is home to The
dinary heating bills, which were far too high to ask oth-
energy stored just below the surface of the earth. Using
Fortnightly Club of Summit, as well as a number of
er organizations to cover, we began to think it would be
a series of pipes (an earth loop) buried in the ground
other organizations in the area.
great if we could use this show house to demonstrate to
and a geothermal or ground-source heat pump, the
As Twin Maples approached its 100th birthday, club
the community how to be green, and better yet, how
geothermal heating and cooling system extracts heat
member Heidi Evenson recalls the decision facing the
to be green and at the same time, preserve an historic
from the earth and carries it to a home in the winter. In
20
COMMERCI A L BUIL DING P RODUC T S
MARCH 2014
www.cbpmagazine.com
