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Anywhere you are on the Earth's surface, 10 feet (3 meters) underground the temperature is a constant 55-60 degrees F (12-15 degrees C) year round. Bury a pipe at this depth and run water through it. The earth will heat the water to this temperature for free and without pollution. You can then run air over the water pipe in what is called a heat exchanger and then use that pre-warmed (or pre-cooled) air in your ventilation system lowering the cost of heating (or cooling) your house.
Not quite, but geothermal systems have very high efficiency. The issue is capital cost. They are substantially more expensive to install than a conventional system. Correctly installing that pipe in the ground is more involved than you realize.
In 1992, we built a house in Ohio with a Geothermal forced air system (Waterfurnace). It was kind of a new thing then. The electric company had a deal going (Smart Sense) with very attractive rates as an incentive to go all electric.
It was fabulous and inexpensive to run, but like others have said, it is initially more expensive to install, and retrofitting into an existing home is really expensive. The AC component is practically free. I think geothermal has a small presence here in the deep south, but I can't figure out why it is not a lot more popular.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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I consider geothermal as plumbing into a hot springs or steam...
Ground Source heat pumps are a poor excuse for Geothermal, (but certainly better than Air to Air HPnd source well?... Use Annualized solar to boost thermal properties// USA is REALLY behind on alternative energy resources.
Geothermal heat pump!!! How sad...you've got to be smoking (again)
Given that many GTHPs are installed for cooling as well as heating, ground coupling at the normal ground temperature is what one wants. In addition, high temperature geothermal resources close enough to the surface to be practicable are only available in a few areas.
We put in a geothermal system in a house we built in 1997. It worked very well for us. Several of our neighbors had problem after problem though, and I was told it was due to their sandy soil. At least 3 houses in our neighborhood sued the contractor to have it replaced. In our case, it was a selling point.
Anywhere you are on the Earth's surface, 10 feet (3 meters) underground the temperature is a constant 55-60 degrees F (12-15 degrees C) year round.
I have two problems with this... first, the three meter depth is only true for some parts of the earth, depending on seasonal surface temperature variations, and it can create false expectations. Many experts use 6 meters (20 ft) as their reference point for the temperature range you mentioned.
Second, the term "geothermal" is technically correct, however popular usage generally reserves the term for applications exploiting high underground temperatures.
Quote:
Bury a pipe at this depth and run water through it. The earth will heat the water to this temperature for free and without pollution. You can then run air over the water pipe in what is called a heat exchanger and then use that pre-warmed (or pre-cooled) air in your ventilation system lowering the cost of heating (or cooling) your house.
What you are describing is called a downpipe heat exchanger. It's merely one of many possible designs for exploiting the natural heat gradiant in the ground, and others tend to be more efficient, hence more popular. As Dakster pointed out the installation of the U-loop in the ground tends to be expensive, and the heat transfer from a simple pipe in the ground is sub-optimal, and needs to be optimized to be very practical.
Bury a pipe at this depth and run water through it. The earth will heat the water to this temperature for free and without pollution.
I suspect there are a few steps missing between sticking a pipe in the ground and me taking a hot shower upstairs.
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