As the world panics over global warming and Americans struggle with the cost of keeping their homes warm, one Dearborn heating and cooling technician is putting all his energy into spreading the use of renewable resources.

Mark Mohamad Nemer helps people harness energy from underneath their backyards to generate heat and air conditioning.

Mohamed Nemer

His company, Desert in Alaska, installs cost-saving, energy-conserving, environmentally friendly geo-thermal heating and cooling systems in local homes and businesses.

Though installation of the systems is costly, Nemer said it’s well worth the savings in utility payments in the long run and boosts the value of a home or building.

“It’s an investment,” he said. 

Trying to convince local Arab Americans of the benefits of going geothermal has been frustrating at times for Nemer, but he said word of the advantages is slowly spreading.

“The Arabs, they care about the dollar amount. They don’t take into account long term savings,” he said. “They don’t understand that there are other things around… It’s not something that they can swallow right away.”

The cost to install a geothermal system in a 1,500 square-foot home would be about $15,000, Nemer said.

But the system eliminates monthly heating costs, cuts electricity bills by up to 60 percent, emits less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and reduces the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning, Nemer said.

At one newly built 4,200 square-foot Dearborn home on Steadman  where geothermal heating and cooling were installed, total yearly utilities are expected to cost about $1,100, according to the homeowner, Salim Younes, who said he did his homework on the subject.

He said a conventional system, which would have required two furnaces and two air conditioners for the large home, would have cost about $15,000 to install, and about $4,300 a year in utility payments.

The geothermal setup cost Younes about $30,000 to install.

“If you’re willing to stay in the house for five to seven years, it will pay off itself. This is the way I look at it,” Younes said. “I did some studying… The best technology out there right now is geothermal.”

Nemer said he started studying geothermal systems several years ago, recognizing its potential and seeing it as an opportunity to explore uncharted territory.

Geothermal energy system

“I want to do what other people can’t do… I like to do everything in a different way.”

The geothermal setup includes hundreds of feet of plastic tubing placed at least 42 inches underground, or in a pond or well, through which water is circulated, absorbing heat. The water flows back to a pump which extracts the heat from the warm water. In the winter the heat is either radiated in the home or building through the floor or circulated through forced air. In the summer the process is reversed and heat is pumped out from indoor air and can be used to heat water.

Significant tax breaks are offered to households using geothermal energy because the setup far exceeds government efficiency standards.

Nemer, who has traveled the country collecting certifications and recognitions from university seminars and workshops on energy efficiency, recommends geothermal installations primarily for buildings that are being renovated or newly built.

He said starting from scratch allows for proper insulation and leakage-prevention.

“That way you’re going to save all the energy within the structure,” he said.

The ideal setup, Nemer said, would include solar panels, wind power and geothermal sources of energy.

“Put these three together and you eliminate the use of utilities. You’re off the grid.”

His dream is to design and build a completely green house in his hometown village of Aynata, Lebanon.

Nemer is still gathering qualifications and certifications to become a designer and commissioner for green buildings, and plans to take his skills to other parts of the world, like Dubai, where intense government specifications have been put in place for sustainable development standards.

“I gained a lot of knowledge here. It’s time for me to implement that knowledge somewhere,” he said. “I’m taking advantage of the time that I’m in right now. Preparing a vault full of things that I have to offer.”

Nemer said he takes pride, as an immigrant, to have become a part of the movement to usher the world into a new era of responsible, renewable energy use.

“As an Arab guy who came [to the U.S.] 10, 12 years ago, you don’t have the support or the resources financially. It took me 12 years to get where I am.”

He’s now considering trips to India, Nepal and China, where he’s been invited to upcoming conferences on green energy initiatives.

“We’re way behind,” he said about U.S. efforts compared to the rest of the world in evolving toward sustainable energy.

“The world is moving away from oil. Here we’re still doing everything to control oil.”