Eco Sustainable Village
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Eco Sustainable Village |
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Geothermal Air Conditioning
A Major Source of Energy Is Right Under Your Feet Geothermal systems represent the leading edge in heating and cooling technology. Basically, they require just one piece of equipment to move heat energy to and from the earth to heat and cool your indoor environment. That's why we say geothermal systems are "Smarter from the Ground Up." Compared to ordinary systems, they can save you up to 60 percent on your monthly energy bills. So geothermal is the safest, cleanest, most reliable space conditioning system you can buy. Equally impressive is the fact that geothermal energy is an unlimited resource. And it's literally right there in your own backyard. The lot surrounding a suburban home or other building contains a vast reservoir of low-temperature thermal energy—typically 10 times that required over an entire heating season. This resource is constantly re-supplied by the sun, the surrounding earth and the heat rejected while cooling during the summer. The universal definition of geothermal is "pertaining to the heat of the earth." By using the earth to provide up to 50 percent of a building's total heating and cooling needs, geothermal systems are truly geothermal energy made practical. And the earth loop makes it all happen. What, You Ask, Is an Earth Loop? It's the very heart of a geothermal system. It's what actually transfers heat to and from the ground. And it's the single biggest advantage a geothermal system has over ordinary heating and cooling systems. Earth loops come in two basic types: closed and open. Closed loops, made of durable, high-density polyethylene pipe, are buried in the earth or submerged in a lake or pond. They transfer heat by circulating a solution of water and environmentally safe antifreeze through the system. Open loops use groundwater pumped from a well as a heat source. The decision of which loop configuration to use depends on the terrain, the cost of trenching or drilling, the availability of quality groundwater and the availability of land. Your geothermal dealer will help you make the most efficient and economical choice. There are four basic types of geothermal energy sources: Horizontal Loops Vertical Loops Pond (Lake) Loops Open Loops For efficiency upgrades where large geothermal systems are not viable, existing boiler/tower jobs are frequently retrofitted. Hybrid systems incorporate a geothermal loop coupled with down-sized conventional heat rejection or additional equipment (a boiler or tower). A geothermal heating and cooling system is:
The secret of a geothermal heating and cooling system's clean, efficient operation is the earth's ability to store heat. In fact, 47 percent of the sun's energy that reaches our planet is absorbed into the earth. That's 500 times more energy than all of humanity would need in a year! And it's an unlimited source of energy. Installing a geothermal heating and cooling system in a typical home is the environmental equivalent of planting 750 trees—or taking two cars off the road. That's because geothermal heating and cooling systems don't burn fossil fuels, and they don't emit carbon dioxide, which has been associated with the greenhouse effect and global warming. The Geothermal Heat Pump Consortium says current geothermal systems save more than 14 million barrels of crude oil every year. And because the only energy needed to run geothermal systems is a small amount of electricity, they reduce the need for new coal-powered electric power plants. Result? Cleaner air and less acid rain. HEAT PUMPS - FUNDAMENTALSHeat naturally flows "downhill", from higher to lower temperatures. A heat pump is a machine which causes the heat to flow in a direction opposite to its natural tendency or "uphill" in terms of temperature. Because work must be done (energy consumed) to accomplish this, the name heat "pump" is used to describe the device. In reality, a heat pump is nothing more than an refrigeration unit. Any refrigeration device (window air conditioner, refrigerator, freezer, etc.) moves heat from a space (to keep it cool) and discharges that heat at higher temperatures. The only difference between a heat pump and a refrigeration unit is the desired effect--cooling for the refrigeration unit and heating for the heat pump. A second distinguishing factor of many heat pumps is that they are reversible and can provide either heating or cooling to the space. One of the most important characteristics of heat pumps, particularly in the context of home heating/cooling, is that the efficiency of the unit and the energy required to operate it are directly related to the temperatures between which it operates. In heat pump terminology, the difference between the temperature where the heat is absorbed (the "source") and the temperature where the heat is delivered (the "sink") is called the "lift." The larger the lift, the greater the power input required by the heat pump. This is important because it forms the basis for the efficiency advantage of the geothermal heat pumps over air-source heat pumps. An air-source heat pump, must remove heat from cold outside air in the winter and deliver heat to hot outside air in the summer. In contrast, the GHP retrieves heat from relatively warm soil (or groundwater) in the winter and delivers heat to the same relatively cool soil (or groundwater) in the summer. As a result, geothermal heat pump, regardless of the season is always pumping the heat over a shorter temperature distance than the air-source heat pump. This leads to higher efficiency and lower energy use.
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