What is geothermal heating and cooling?
It is an energy source that is free, renewable, clean, and environmentally friendly. A geothermal system captures this free entergy from the earth by using a series of pipes (an earth loop) buried in the ground. How does it work? Heat flows from hot matter to cold matter. Applying the principle stated, we know that in cold outdoor weather, the warmer earth will gladly release its heat energy into the cooler loop. This heat is absorbed from the warmed loop by cool refrigerant in the water-to-refrigerant heat exchanger (coax). Finally, the heat is released from the warmed refrigerant into the cooler house (via supply air ducts) by the air-to-refrigerant heat exchanger (air coil). As heat is drawn away from the earth loop to the house, the loop is cooled again to a point where its temperature is lower than the surrounding soil and the process repeats. During warm outdoor weather, the cooler earth serves as a heat sink. Heat is absorbed from the house by the cool refrigerant in the air coi
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Geothermal is the most energy-efficient, environmentally clean, and cost-effective space conditioning system available. Geothermal heating and cooling uses the relatively constant temperature of the earth to heat and cool homes and businesses with 40% to 70% less energy than conventional systems. While conventional furnaces and boilers burn a fuel to generate heat, geothermal heat pumps use electricity to simply move heat from the earth into buildings, allowing much higher efficiencies. The most efficient fuel-burning heater can reach efficiencies around 95%, but a geothermal heat pump can move up to 5.5 units of heat for every unit of electricity needed to power the system, resulting in a practical equivalence of over 550% efficiency.
Heating and Cooling Your Home – Imagine a system that can both heat and cool your home, using a clean, renewable source of energy with no combustion to add pollutants to the atmosphere despite the fact that it can deliver heat, air conditioning and hot water with approximately 20%-50% more efficiency than most traditional cooling systems. Imagine further that by using this heating system, you become eligible for tax credits, payment rebates from your utility companies – and still save as much as $1500 a year on your typical heating and cooling costs. Does it all sound too good to be true? The Geothermal Heat Pump Consortium has $100 million to help convince homeowners to convert to the heating and cooling system that the Environmental Protection Agency calls a geothermal cooling system “the most energy-efficient and environmentally sensitive of all space conditioning systems”. What is a geothermal heat pump and why use it for cooling your house? Also known as a ‘ground source heat pump
Conventional heating and cooling systems use air to transfer heat into and out of buildings. Geothermal systems use the nearly constant temperature of the ground as a heat source in the winter and as a heat sink in the summer. Properly designed and installed, these systems can heat and cool efficiently. Because these systems are often intimately connected with underground sources of drinking water, the North Carolina Underground Injection Control (UIC) Program of the Division of Water Quality regulates the construction and operation of these systems in order to keep the ground water suitable for drinking. What Regulations and Permits Do You Need to Know About? Proper well construction and maintenance can protect human health and ground water quality, plus help avoid problems with heat pump system operation. As with other well types, only certified well drillers are permitted to construct wells for geothermal heating and cooling systems. Permits are required for some types of systems in
