Geothermal Air Conditioners
October 18, 2011 | Geothermal Air Conditioners
A geothermal air conditioner is a system that uses the ambient heat of the Earth’s surface to cool buildings. It is one of the most efficient and environmentally friendly types of air conditioning systems available.
Geothermal energy is a heat trapped in the Earth. Traditionally, the term “geothermal” only referred to the heat stored deep in the Earth, in the mantle and core. More recently, however, the term has come to include the heat at the surface, where solar rays keep the soil at a consistent temperature year round.
This heat at the surface is the focus of geothermal air conditioners. A geothermal air conditioning and heating system either sends heat from the soil to the building or vice versa, depending on the season and the relative temperatures of the building and the ground.
The setup is simple. Below about 20 feet, the ground keeps a stable temperature that reflects the average annual temperature of the air above. When the building temperature drops far enough below this stable line, a heat pump sends heat from the ground into the building. When the building temperature rises far enough above the line, the pump directs heat from the building into the ground.
A geothermal air conditioner is highly efficient and friendly to the environment, but it has one drawback in this area: It is electric-powered. So unless you have a completely renewable energy source, your use of a geothermal unit will factor into your eco footprint.
It can be expensive to install a geothermal HVAC system (also known as a ground source heat pump), but the operating costs are very low compared to other heating and cooling systems. A geothermal system is also expected to have a longer lifespan than most other systems.
