BOULDER, Colo. -- Engineers are planning to use the earth to help moderate air temperatures at Casey Middle School in Boulder.

The school is being rebuilt at the corner of 14th and High streets using the south and west walls of the old building.

Last month, work crews drilled 70 holes in what used to be the football field, then installed a closed pipe system.

Those vertical pipes are the core of a new geothermal heating and cooling system for the school.

"It's fascinating," said Regina Bock, a parent who attended an information session Thursday afternoon. "I think this is the wave of the future."

"To have a school that looks toward the future really makes a lot of sense," added parent Elene Mooney.

School principal Alison Boggs told 7NEWS, "The average person might be surprised to know that there is so much energy under the surface of the school."

Walker Jones, of EMC Engineering, explained to neighborhood residents that ground temperatures fluctuate with the seasons in the first 20 feet of soil.

"The temperature of the ground below 20 feet is stable," he said.

In Boulder, that stable ground temperature is about 58 degrees.

Jones said water will be added to the underground pipes and will adapt to the stable ground temperature. It will then be pumped into the new school. Heat pumps will compress the water, further raising the temperature, and it will then be circulated in the classrooms.

"Before, (in the old school) one of our classrooms was 50 degrees. It was pretty cold," Boggs said. "I think it's going to be much more consistent now."

School officials didn't have a breakdown of the geothermal system's cost readily available, but told 7NEWS that the cost to rebuild the school is $31 million.

Project officials said it cost about $400,000 to drill the holes for the core pipes.

"Over time, within 5 years, it's going to pay for itself," Boggs said. "The operation will be much more efficient. For very unit of energy we use, we'll save three."

Engineers said parts of the new geothermal system will last much longer than a regular heating and cooling system.

"The core geothermal units that are put into the ground are expected to last 50 to 100 years," Jones said. "A boiler system might be expected to last 20 years. So this is two to five times as long."

Boggs said her students, who are currently attending a nearby school, are excited about the geothermal system.

"We will incorporate it into the classroom," she said. "So it will be an educational tool as well."