30%refundable federal credit on commercial ground-source systems — loop field included — what qualifies

Designed · Drilled · Commissioned

The most expensive thing you can put in the ground, and the longest-lived.

Ground source heat pump systems for commercial, institutional and residential buildings. Engineered to the Canadian standard, sized to the building's real annual balance, and honest about when a cheaper system would serve you better.

CSA/ANSI/IGSHPA C448 Series:25 Thermal conductivity testing Vertical · horizontal · pond · open loop 30% federal credit on commercial Financing available
Clean Technology Investment Tax Credit
30%refundable — loop field included

On a commercial ground source project most of the cost is in the ground, and the ground qualifies. That makes this the largest single credit available on any building measure in Canada — and it runs to 31 December 2033.

Free · No email required

Is ground source right for this building?

Three questions. We will say no when the answer is no.

Four ways into the ground.

The loop is most of the cost and all of the risk. Which one suits you is decided by the site, not by preference — and the wrong choice does not fail on day one. It fails in year seven.

Vertical BOREHOLES 100–180 m Constrained sites · the default
Horizontal TRENCHED FIELD Where land exists · cheaper per ton
Pond SUBMERGED LOOP Rare · cheap · permit-heavy
Open GROUNDWATER Lowest capital · highest risk
Decided by the siteConfirmed by assessment

What we do

Design first. Drill second.

A loop field is the one part of a building system you cannot easily revisit. Once the bores are grouted and the slab is back down, an undersized field stays undersized. So the sequence matters more here than on anything else we install.

01

Before anything is drilled

Where the money is saved or lost
01 · 01

Site assessment

Access, geology, services, setbacks and what the site will actually permit. The answer is occasionally that this building should not have a ground loop at all.

Before design, not after
01 · 02

Thermal conductivity testing

A test bore, instrumented and run long enough to measure how quickly the ground gives up and takes back heat. On a commercial field this is not optional engineering.

Measured, not assumed
01 · 03

Load and balance modelling

Heating and cooling hours across a full year. A field sized for peak heating in a building that also rejects heat all summer is a different field entirely.

Annual balance, not peak load
02

Who it suits

Load profile and ownership horizon decide it
02 · 01

Institutional

Schools, long-term care, municipal buildings. Steady load, long horizons, and an owner who will still be there in twenty-five years. The profile the technology was built for.

30% federal credit applies
02 · 02

Commercial & multi-residential

Where simultaneous heating and cooling makes a ground loop do work no air-source system can match — moving heat between zones instead of rejecting it.

Best case: mixed simultaneous load
02 · 03

Residential

For properties with the land and the horizon. No federal credit applies to a house, so the case has to stand on the energy alone — and sometimes it does not.

Honest comparison first

The standard

Ask every bidder one question.

"Do you design to CSA C448, and which edition?" It is a fair question, it takes ten seconds, and the answers will separate your bidders faster than anything else you could ask.

What
Detail
Status
CSA/ANSI/IGSHPA C448 Series
Design and installation of ground source heat pump systems for commercial and residential buildings. Joint Canadian, American and IGSHPA standard, roughly 250 pages.
2025 edition
Replaced
The 2017 edition. If a contractor quotes C448 without a year, ask which one they mean.
C448-17
New in 2025
District energy systems, energy foundations and energy piles, a waste water energy transfer annex, PE-RT piping, and additional heat transfer fluids including glycerin-based and detoxified ethylene glycol.
Expanded scope
Training
The 2025 edition is the basis for current IGSHPA training.
Current

Why it matters commercially, not just technically. An undersized loop field does not announce itself. The system works, the client is happy, and then several seasons in the ground has not fully recovered between cycles and the capacity is simply not there on the coldest week. By then the fix is another drilling programme, on an occupied building. What the standard covers →

Request an assessment

Start with the ground.

Tell us the building, the site and how long you expect to own it. You will get a reference number immediately and an honest answer about whether this is the right system for you.

You will get a reference number on screen straight away.