THE GEOTHERMAL HEAT PUMP OPPORTUNITY

Why Geothermal Systems Are Heating Up

Loretta Waldman, June 27, 2014 (Hartford Courant)

“…In a storage room in the finished basement [of a Hartford, CT, home] sits a WaterFurnace Envision dual-capacity geothermal heat pump, the heart of the system that heats and cools the 3,200-square-foot house. Tentacle-like hoses extend up from the box-shaped pump, wind around the upper edge of two walls, to a cluster of pipes leading out of the foundation…Beyond that, hidden from view, are loops of polyethylene pipe stretching 300 feet into the ground in two vertical wells. The pipes are filled with water that, because the temperature range of the ground at that depth is 48 to 52 degrees, stays warm year-round. Depending on the season, the heat pump transfers the heat energy into or out of the house to keep it warm or cool…[T]he system is delivering lower-than-predicted energy costs…[The electric bill for the 2012 months of May, June and August was $16 per month, the basic monthly distribution charge…[Upfront costs are] recouped within three to seven years…Geothermal is a niche market compared to oil and gas — less than 2 percent of residential and commercial buildings in the United States — but heat-pump sales have been rising since the 1980s…” click here for more

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