Aug. 22--Kirk Mescher apparently was destined to become an engineer.

"My mom told me I tore up so much as a kid that I had to become an engineer to put things back together," Mescher said recently during an interview at the office of CM Engineering Inc., the company he co-owns at 700 Cherry St.

The company provides a full range of mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineering services, but CM Engineering's bread-and-butter is a one-pipe, geothermal heating and cooling system that Mescher designed about seven years ago. But mechanical engineering was not always his focus. If not for an introduction to thermodynamics while attending Missouri University of Science & Technology, then University of Missouri-Rolla, Mescher probably would have wound up working as an automotive engineer.

Mescher, 53, was racing stock cars at the age 14 and maintains a historical connection to a Columbia racing legend.

"I built Carl Edwards' first race car," he said. "I knew Carl when he was in diapers. And that makes me feel really old."

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The one-pipe ground-source heat pump system that Mescher dreamed up still is fairly new technology in the engineering field, although CM Engineering's portfolio is now stuffed with successful, ongoing and pending projects.

Here's how the system works: One pipe runs into a well to circulate ground water through the system to create heating or cooling, using the ground as a sort of "battery" to recycle geothermal energy, Mescher said. Some projects require dozens of wells. The water circulates in a loop, or "river," around a building, feeding heating or cooling to individual HVAC units.

"It's so simple, it's pathetic," he said. "Geothermal is the only way I know of recycling energy."

The process uses the cold of winter for summer cooling and the heat of summer for winter heating. It also eliminates the return lines, electronic drives, computer sensors and other expensive components of a two-pipe system.

About 80 percent of the company's work is geothermal projects.

The company has provided engineering services to dozens of schools, with the bulk of its work focused in Illinois. A retrofit of more than 43,000 square feet of a school in Normal, Ill., was completed in 54 days and has reduced the building's energy use by more than 60 percent. The project also converted three boiler rooms to usable space, Mescher said.

"They haven't touched the system in four years" for maintenance, he said. "I think that's due to the simplicity. That's the whole reason for" the one-pipe system.

The company now is involved with 12 school projects in Illinois.

"They give my name" to other schools and prospective customers, Mescher said. "I guess they like our work."

The cost savings and efficiency speak volumes for the technology, he said. The list of satisfied clients also includes projects closer to home.