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How it Works
A loop field
How it works in winter
How it works in summer
Like a refrigerator
Calculating Costs 8/08 rates
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Past Ground Source
Cathodic Protection
Benefits
The EPA says it's the most efficient, environmentally
clean and cost-effective space conditioning system available.
International
Ground Source Heat Pump Association |
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The technology relies on the fact that the Earth (beneath the surface) remains at a relatively constant temperature throughout the year, warmer than the air above it during the winter and cooler in the summer, very much like a cave. The geothermal heat pump takes advantage of this by transferring heat stored in the Earth or in ground water into a building during the winter, and transferring it out of the building and back into the ground during the summer. A Closed loop Ground Source Loop
Field looks like this drawing underground. Typical boreholes
are 200' deep in a grid 15' apart. They are headered into a
manifold and brought into the building to the heat pump(s) which
circulate the heat in zones throughout the building. Radiant
heat or forced air heating or a hybrid of both can be used. |
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Water
or antifreeze solution is circulated through plastic pipes
buried beneath the earth's surface. During the winter, the fluid
absorbs heat from the earth which is about 50 degrees
year around and carries it through the system and into the
building. It's much more efficient to bring 50 degrees to
room temperature than to take outside air and heat or cool it to
room temperature.
Pipe has 50 year warranty. Heat
pumps are vary low maintenance...just change filters. No
boilers license needed. Takes little space in building.
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During
the summer, the system reverses itself to cool the building by
pulling heat from the building, carrying it through the system
and placing it in the ground..
You can use your yard, parking lot or ball field for your well
field. Murray High School used the student parking lot for
their wellfield. They saved $1M in construction costs in
the size of their mechanical room and they never shovel or plow
the parking lot as the grid of geoexchange flowing to the
school below the surface keeps the parking lot snow free.
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Heat pumps work like a refrigerator compressor,
transferring heat, not making heat or cold. That's why
it's so energy efficient.
In the late 1940's, Robert C. Webber, a cellar
inventor, was experimenting with his deep freezer. He dropped
the temperature in the freezer and touched the outlet pipe and
almost burned his hand.
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| For more information
www.geoexchange.org
Dept. of Energy- Geothermal for Your Home
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