Using Ground Source Heat Pumps for Heating
Ground source heat pumps present a somewhat low-cost and environmentally friendly technique to use spare heat from the earth for heating and cooling both housing and commercial structures. Early set-up prices can be considerably higher than normal air-source systems, but geothermal heat pumps deliver greatly lessen ownership costs over the long run. Ground source heat pumps (GSHPs) are devices that use the earth?s temperature to provide heating, cooling and hot water for commercial organisations and residential buildings. The systems are developed to take advantage of the fact that temperatures remain at a close to constant level of between 7 C and 21 C just a few feet beneath the ground, regardless of geographic location or surface air temperatures. During winter, the systems essentially draw out heat from the ground and move it to a commercial building or home, while in summer the systems draw out heat from inside buildings and move it to the ground. Ground source heat pumps are electrically driven and are sometimes referred to as geothermal heat pumps, or geo-exchange pumps, or merely as earth-coupled heat pumps. A full-fledged GSHP device is composed 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 normally is made up of numerous loops of plastic tubing loaded with antifreeze liquid or water, hidden underground in horizontal or vertical fashion. In the course of winter, the liquid in the loops collects heat from the ground and forces it to the heat pump where a compressor lifts the temperature even more before circulating it throughout the building. The flow of the liquid inside the loops is reversed throughout summer. This results in the warmer air being taken out from the building and moved to the ground while cooler liquid is distributed back to the heat pump and then through the building. An open loop system performs in more or less the same way, but in such cases the liquid in the loops is usually ejected into the earth. Ground source heat pumps have been utilised since the 1940s and are deemed a more eco-friendly and cost-efficient alternative to conventional air-transfer based heating and cooling systems. Tests have found that GSHP systems have heating efficiencies up to 70% higher than regular systems and cooling efficiencies of nearly 40% more than air-conditioners. The primary cost of setting up a geothermal heat pump can be quite difficult compared to standard heating and cooling systems. Nonetheless, over the long-term the pumps are inexpensive to own and to manage. They also can provide up to 50% savings on energy consumption. In some cases, a geothermal heat pump is set up along with an air-source heat pump as a way to minimize initial installation costs. Learn more facts about Ground Source Heat Pumps