A new study looks at the government investment needed to lower the cost of geothermal energy to that of coal. Having recently moved into a building that uses a closed-loop ground-source heat pump system for its heating and cooling needs, my wife and I are excited at the prospect of lower energy consumption. So far, the technology is as it claims. During our first proper billing period, we used only 241 kWh. According to our local utility, the average customer in its service territory uses 600 kWh per month. Considering Madison had a cruel stretch of daily high temperatures in excess of 90° with humidity that made even the exterior of windows sweat, a phenomenon more common in August than June, we are very pleased with the first result. I should note our low usage is supplemented with eastern facing windows, obsessive thermostat setbacks, and compulsive energy efficiency that drives my wife absolutely insane. She likens my robotic behavior to her childhood days spent living in Communist Romania. Somehow being told to turn off the power strip when not using the Internet unearths memories when television broadcasting was limited to two hours and consisted mostly of regime propaganda. Needless to say, I've loosened my insistence, especially following a confrontation that ended with her uttering something in Romanian. I don't speak the language, but it sounded like a warning to me given her emphatic use of the word Ceauşescu. It definitely did not sound inviting like when she plays with our cat. Anyway, it remains to be seen how effective geothermal heating is in the dead of a Wisconsin winter. The electric baseboard heaters situated under the two very large windows that are encased in a dominant wall of exposed brick in our living room cautions my optimism. And so does any conservation measure that can easily be mistaken as a form of societal censorship. Stay tuned readers and I love you, honey.
7.22.2009
Dirt Cheap or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Ground-Source Heat
A new study looks at the government investment needed to lower the cost of geothermal energy to that of coal. Having recently moved into a building that uses a closed-loop ground-source heat pump system for its heating and cooling needs, my wife and I are excited at the prospect of lower energy consumption. So far, the technology is as it claims. During our first proper billing period, we used only 241 kWh. According to our local utility, the average customer in its service territory uses 600 kWh per month. Considering Madison had a cruel stretch of daily high temperatures in excess of 90° with humidity that made even the exterior of windows sweat, a phenomenon more common in August than June, we are very pleased with the first result. I should note our low usage is supplemented with eastern facing windows, obsessive thermostat setbacks, and compulsive energy efficiency that drives my wife absolutely insane. She likens my robotic behavior to her childhood days spent living in Communist Romania. Somehow being told to turn off the power strip when not using the Internet unearths memories when television broadcasting was limited to two hours and consisted mostly of regime propaganda. Needless to say, I've loosened my insistence, especially following a confrontation that ended with her uttering something in Romanian. I don't speak the language, but it sounded like a warning to me given her emphatic use of the word Ceauşescu. It definitely did not sound inviting like when she plays with our cat. Anyway, it remains to be seen how effective geothermal heating is in the dead of a Wisconsin winter. The electric baseboard heaters situated under the two very large windows that are encased in a dominant wall of exposed brick in our living room cautions my optimism. And so does any conservation measure that can easily be mistaken as a form of societal censorship. Stay tuned readers and I love you, honey.
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I've revised the title, replacing Hot Rocks with Ground-Source Heat. Thanks to a colleague who took me to task:
Hot rocks? Nope, the deep ground temperature is more like 50 degrees F in Madison. I like what John Straube wrote:
"The terms geothermal, geoexchange™, or earth energy systems are sometimes used to describe a ground source heat pump system. However, geothermal heating is more accurately reserved for systems that tap into hot (ideally hundreds of degrees) rocks or water in the earth for heating or power production. Areas of the world with geysers and active volcanoes (notably Iceland and New Zealand) can often make good use of geothermal energy. GeoExchange™ is a newer and arguably more accurate term for the older and most accurate Ground-Source Heat Pump. The use of alternate terms provides little useful information and tends to be the product of marketing groups who have little interest in the underlying mechanics of GSHP."
For the full article, see:... Read More
http://tinyurl.com/mtpnd9
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