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How Geothermal Works

Posted by Taylor Hendricksen on Jan 15, 2012 in Basics | 0 comments

Geothermal Heating Works using a geothermal heat pump. Heat pumps move heat energy from one place to another.

The heat pump in your refrigerator moves the heat from the inside of the insulated box and releases it into the room.

The heat pump in window air conditioner takes the heat out of a room and vents it to the outside.

A ground source heat pump can remove heat from the ground and release it into a structure or it can remove heat from a structure and release it into the ground.

The efficiency of this heat transfer greatly depends on the load and the source temperatures. The reason ground source heat pumps are so efficient is that the earth is an ideal temperature as both a source of heat in the winter and as a heat sink in the summer.

Think of a hot summer day. A window air conditioner must remove heat from the room and reject it into the already hot summer air. While the temperature of the refrigerant far exceeds the ambient outdoor temperature it has reduced capacity to release heat as the temperature increases. If the air conditioner could release the heat it has removed from the room into the cool earth below the home it could get rid of the heat much faster and easier than trying to reject it into the hot summer air.

Now think of a cold winter day. The colder it gets outside a home, the less efficient it is to remove heat from the cold ambient air and deliver it to the warm home.

The earth provides a thermal mass with a consistent moderate temperature.

The sun provided the thermal energy. The earth absorbed it. Heat pumps can move it.