Geothermal Heating And Cooling: Using Clean And Renewable Source Is Most Desirable

The method of heating and cooling known as geothermal heating has been known to man since the times of the Romans who used it to heat their buildings and spas and did so by tapping hot water and also steam that was found to exist close to the surface of the earth. Thus, geothermal heating and cooling is nothing new and it can be used wherever geothermal resources are available and it has for long been used in places such as Reykjavik in Iceland and closer to home in Boise, Idaho.

Geothermal Heat Pumps

More recently, geothermal heating and cooling is achieved through use of Geothermal heat pumps and it is also supposed to be a most efficient and environmentally friendly means of heating and cooling and it works by tapping on the constant temperature of about fifty-five degrees Fahrenheit off the surface of the Earth and using such heat to both cool and heat buildings. And, in the winter months, it is possible to tap this heat flow from the earth and thereby save as many as forty to seventy percent in costs of heating and from thirty to fifty percent in terms of costs of cooling during the summer months.

At present, with the help of new technology, ground source heat pumps do a job that is similar to that of air source heat pumps and that too at a much more reasonable cost, which helps an average household save as much as fifteen hundred dollars on a yearly basis, which will thus help you recover the costs in a period of just three to five years. The best part about such geothermal heating and cooling systems are that they are very efficient which is a major plus as far as heating and cooling concerns go.

Ground source heat pumps that are used in geothermal heating and cooling do not even require much electricity to work on and these systems get as many as seventy percent of their energy from the earth which is a clean as well as renewable source. Also, with this form of geothermal heating and cooling systems, you also get the benefit of having all unit components housed within the building and thus there is less wear and tear from nature's ravages and there is also less fear of vandalism and even theft.

The only drawback is that geothermal heating and cooling systems can cost thirty percent more than your normal heating and cooling systems, and there are also not that many qualified contractors that know how to install and design as well as service geothermal heating and cooling systems. However, given that this technology is relatively new, there is reason to expect it to improve even further in the years to come and thus provide more efficiency to users in times to come.