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Anonymous
Are you REALLY using Geothermal Energy?
By Steve Benz posted on Thu, 2009-07-16 08:47 , 1196 reads, 1 commentSO you want to include geothermal energy on your building project!
I remember when I was a kid watching the nightly news. Off the coast of Iceland, the Atlantic Continental Rift was tearing the world apart, and hot magma was spewing forth to create the new island of Surtsey. Night after night on TV we saw nature's fury--incredible sources of energy from within the earth itself--unleashed to demonstrate just how powerful geothermal energy can be.
Iceland is located on a thin piece of the earth's mantle or crust, so the nation taps into the available thermal energy by drilling down into the earth to boil water using the heat energy from within the earth itself, spinning turbines to create electricity and usable energy. But these systems, truly "geothermal energy" systems, have little in common with those used in building systems. So what does this have to do with a building using geothermal energy?
Somewhat of a misnomer when describing building energy systems, "geothermal" systems could be more accurately called geoexchange or ground-source heat pump systems. These systems use the relatively constant thermal mass of the ground as a heat sink to move heat into and away from the ground to the building to provide space heating and cooling. They don't actually create electricity like those used in Iceland, rather they offer a more efficient means of heating and cooling buildings than traditional fossil-fuel powered systems. OK, you are using geothermal energy but not for generating power! These systems need to run on electricity which is usually pulled off the grid. Because these systems are more efficient than direct fueled traditional heating/cooling systems, they save energy costs and have a corresponding benefits from reduced carbon emissions.
I found this article that I wanted to share to help explain and clarify these systems.
So when the topic of "geothermal energy" comes up in your planning for your next building project, perhaps you should ask if the discussion is really about "ground source" heat pumps!
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We try to consistently refer to the UC Davis system as a 'ground source heat pump', but technically there is nothing wrong with saying its a 'geothermal heat pump'. At 16'-0" below the surface, the Davis system should be minimally influenced by solar fluctuations that could impact a shallower array.
In theory, a geothermal heat pump with a very large source, like a lake, could be used to continually extract (or dump) energy. In that regard, it's no different than 'geothermal energy', other than in intensity.
When using dirt as the source, it's more important to balance the loads, as the ground does not dissipate the energy as readily, so prolonged operation of one cycle could degrade performance. I guess that’s where the preference for 'geo-exchange' originates, but maybe ' ground balanced thermal pump' would be most accurate :-)
Strachan
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