Ground source heating can provide your house with clean, green, reliable heating and help you save 40-70 percent over traditional home furnaces. Occasionally referred to as geothermal heating, the supply system will tap the warmth stuck in the earth and makes use of an electrically driven heat to pump to circulate it into your house. Because ground source heating slashes the household carbon footprint up to 50 percent, a lot of people can easily make an application for grants and incentives to subsidize installation costs.
Harnessing geothermal activity is basically a simple process and has been used in a lot of ways to warm households over the centuries. Most people believe ground heat is produced by underground tectonic activity, however scientists think it comes from a combination of solar energy and radioactive decay of minerals.
Undoubtedly, the ideal regions are usually in locations near tectonic plate boundaries for instance Iceland or Japan, along with areas where the crust is thinner and there are lots of hot springs. But even very cold surface ground has sufficient heat to keep a home heated due to a process referred to as thermal inertia, which basically permits the ground to maintain the solar energy received in the summer. The latest breakthroughs in thermal heat pumps make it possible to extract ground heat from just about any place.
Dependant on your exact ground conditions along with the space that is available, installers may decide to work with one of three designs. A horizontal ground closed loop system is usually perfect for big gardens where trenches are easy to dig simply because 400 to 600 feet of piping is needed for every ton of heat generated. Vertical ground closed loop designs would be best for minimal space or for places where it’s difficult to dig, so just one hole will be dug and a U-bend pipe is inserted. Pond closed loop systems are used in places close to a shallow pond or lake where slinky shaped pipes are submerged underwater in a closed system.
In areas with a lot of hot springs, the warmed water is usually directly pumped into above ground radiators. In desert locations where the ground is very hot and dry, devices named earth tubes are installed that work as downhole heat exchangers which are used to collect and deliver the heat.
Considering that even the most efficient combustion based heater calls for a continuing supply of material to work, the benefits of ground source heating become apparent. The continuous supply of geothermal heat requires no replenishing and doesn’t damage the natural environment. A bit of electricity is necessary to drive the geothermal heat pump however it is designed to achieve a four to one ratio, which means you get 400 percent return on the power used.
Ground solar heating is a superb investment that instantly begins to pay for itself because there is relatively no maintenance or service required to keep it running.
Click here for more details about ground sourcing heat pump systems and geothermal heating options
categories: geaothermal heating, heating, environment, eco friendly