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The temperature of the earth in our region five feet below ground
level is a constant 54 degrees. In summer, the soil temperature is
cooler than the outside air. In winter, it’s warmer. An
earth-coupled heat pump, also called a ground source heat pump, can
be used three different ways to transfer this temperature to heat or
cool homes and other buildings very efficiently.
A vertical closed –loop system circulates a water/antifreeze
mixture through sealed pipe loops buried in vertical bore holes. The
bore holes are typically 150 to 200 feet deep and the pipes transfer
their temperature from a heat pump system to the ground during the
summer and from the ground to a heat pump system during the winter. In a well water system, two wells are used to distribute underground water. Water from one well is pumped through a heat pump, then returned to a second well or discharged into a pond. This system requires three to five gallons of water per minute, per ton (a unit measure of heating/cooling) to operate. A ground-source heat pump provides three to four units of heat
for every unit of electrical energy required to operate the system.
This means that you get two to three kilowatt hours of free energy
for every one kilowatt hour of electrical energy that you pay for.
In other words, a ground-source heat pump is 300% to 400%
efficient. |
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