Ground Source Heat Pumps Extracting Comfort From The Air And Ground.

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A heat pump is not just for heating your home. When the weather is warm, it provides cooling and, in the case of ground source heat pumps (GSHP), hot water as well.

There are two types of heat pumps, both powered by electricity. The traditional type is an air-source heat pump, which extracts heat from the outside air during the heating season and releases it to the outside air during the cooling season. The another type, the ground-source heat pump (GSHP), uses the relatively constant temperature of the ground as its heat source and sink.

Heat pumps have been evolving ever since they were first invented over fifty years ago. A GSHP system can be over 500% efficient, can reduce annual energy consumption for a home by up to 75% and can, depending on many variables, cut carbon emissions by 70%+.

If GSHPs can perform so well, why is their use not more widespread?
Three main reasons:
1. Initial costs;
2. Lack of public awareness;
3. Inconsistent regulatory and incentives regimes. Until now, support from the federal government has been rather limited but things are improving in this area.

Because the ground is a steady state, warmer than the air in the winter and cooler than the air in the summer, GSHPs are more than twice as efficient as air-source heat pumps, especially in heating mode. They are also more expensive to install because they require many hundreds of feet of piping buried in shallow trenches in the ground or looping through vertical boreholes. Sometimes the pipes are run through a pond or other body of water (these are sometimes called water-source heat pumps). Water or a water/antifreeze mix circulates through the pipes.

During the winter, the heat pump extracts heat from the liquid and transfers it to the home using a compressor to increase the temperature of the energy from the ground, a fan and ducts. The cooled water is pumped back through the pipes, where it picks up heat and returns again to the heat pump. During the summer, the system works in reverse and produces hot water as a byproduct.

Ground source heat pumps overall performance in terms of cost savings and emissions reduction varies greatly by location and is tied to two factors: I) climate and II) the type and cost of fuel they are replacing, i.e., home heating oil, natural gas, electric resistance heat, etc. Essentially, the more heating and cooling that is required and the more expensive the energy prices are, the greater the economic savings are. As an example, two similar houses.

About the Author:
Samuel Lukes is working as an Internet Marketing Consultant. He has written many articles like how to do Ground source heat pumpsextracting comfort from the air and ground.



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