Geothermal Heating and Cooling: Not as Far-Fetched As It Sounds

What is Geothermal Heating?

Geothermal heating is a central heating or cooling system that takes advantage of the earth in order to get the heat necessary to heat a home or business. Conversely, it uses the earth as a heat sink in the summer time to ensure that the home is cool enough.

What are the benefits of using geothermal energy?

Several attributes make it a good source of energy.

• First, it's clean. Energy can be extracted without burning a fossil fuel such as coal, gas, or oil. Geothermal fields produce only about one-sixth of the carbon dioxide that a relatively clean natural-gas-fueled power plant produces, and very little if any, of the nitrous oxide or sulfur-bearing gases. Binary plants, which are closed cycle operations, release essentially no emissions.
• Geothermal energy is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Geothermal power plants have average avail-abilities of 90% or higher, compared to about 75% for coal plants.
• Geothermal power is homegrown, reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

How Does geothermal heating and cooling Work?

In the space approximately four to six feet below the earth, the ground temperature is fairly consistent and will stay that way the year around.

Creating a geothermal system means burying a system of pipes and then adding an indoor unit to handle the heat for you as well as a duct work system to distribute the heat. In this way you can take heat from the earth and give your home low cost energy.

In the winter time, geothermal heating takes away heat from the in-ground storage.This is known as using an earth loop to take heat out of the ground. To simplify it, the system will absorb the heat that is present in the earth The heat is then concentrated. It is then circulated using the heat pump to send warm air into your home. In the summer time the opposite method is used to sink the heat into the ground and give you cool air to circulate.

Bear in mind that while geothermal energy is known as free energy, it is costly to set up the initial system so the system may take years before it pays for itself.

The very same methods that are used to heat your home can also be used to heat the water that you use for bathing and to create other heat sources in the home. In the UK geothermal hot water heating is quite common and it is becoming more common in the United States.

In pioneer days the pioneers learned which areas had warm water available in the ground naturally and would often plant there, allowing them to grow bigger and better crops in many cases.

Types of Geothermal Heat Pump Systems