Using Ground Source Heat Pumps for Heating
Saturday, July 10th, 2010Ground source heat pumps deliver a relatively low-cost and environmentally friendly method to use spare heat from the ground for heating and cooling both housing and industrial properties. Early set-up costs can be considerably higher than regular air-source systems, but geothermal heat pumps provide considerably decrease ownership costs over the long term. Ground source heat pumps (GSHPs) are systems that use the earth?s temperature to provide heating, cooling and hot water for commercial establishments and housing establishments. The systems are designed to make use of the fact that temperatures stay at a near constant level of between 7 C and 21 C just a handful of feet under the ground, irrespective of geographic location or surface air temperatures. Through winter, the systems essentially draw out heat from the ground and move it to a commercial building or house, while in summer the systems extract heat from inside buildings and move it to the ground. Ground source heat pumps are electrically run and are at times referred to as geothermal heat pumps, or geo-exchange pumps, or merely as earth-coupled heat pumps. A full-fledged GSHP system consists of a heat pump, a ground loop system for absorbing heat from the ground or rejecting it back to the earth, and air ducts or radiant floor systems for giving the hot or cold air. The ground loop system typically is made up of several loops of plastic tubing filled with antifreeze liquid or water, hidden underground in horizontal or vertical way. Through winter, the liquid in the loops collects heat from the earth and forces it to the heat pump where a compressor raises the temperature even more before circulating it throughout the building. The stream of the liquid inside the loops is reversed in the course of summer. This results in the warmer air being taken out from the building and transferred to the earth while cooler liquid is distributed back to the heat pump and then through the building. An open loop system operates in about the same way, but in such cases the liquid in the loops is usually ejected into the ground. Ground source heat pumps have been in use since the 1940s and are thought to be a more environmentally-friendly and cost-effective substitute to standard air-transfer based heating and cooling systems. Tests have found that GSHP systems have heating efficiencies up to 70% higher than standard systems and cooling efficiencies of nearly 40% more than air-conditioners. The primary cost of setting up a geothermal heat pump can be quite high compared to conventional heating and cooling systems. Nonetheless, over the long term the pumps are more affordable to own and to maintain. They also can provide up to 50% savings on energy use. Sometimes, a geothermal heat pump is installed along with an air-source heat pump as a way to decrease initial installation costs. Learn more info about Ground Source Heat Pumps