Geothermal Energy: The World's Greenest Heating and Cooling System
A Convenient TruthFor most homeowners, up to 70% of a home’s total energy bill goes toward heating, cooling and hot water. The rest is for lighting, appliances and other usage. Therefore, the biggest opportunity to save large amounts of money on your energy bill is to increase the efficiency of your heating, cooling and hot water systems. To do this, homeowners across America are turning to geothermal systems… to save money and the environment, too!
Fascinating Facts about Geothermal
The ground absorbs 47% of the sun’s energy that reaches the Earth. This represents 500 times more energy than mankind needs every year.
Over 750,000 geothermal systems have been installed in the United States since 1980. Installing a geothermal system in a typical 2500 sq ft home is equal, in annual greenhouse gas reduction, to planting an acre of trees, or taking two cars off the road. Current geothermal installations save more than 16 million barrels of crude oil per year. If every home in Connecticut installed a geothermal system, the energy saved would equal the output of ten new power plants.
Geothermal Installations in the U.S.
Have eliminated more than 4.35 million metric tons of CO2 annually. Are equivalent to taking nearly 1,000,000 cars off the road. Are equivalent to planting nearly 300 million trees. Reduce US reliance on imported fuels by over 16 million barrels of crude oil per year.
Ground Loop Installation
The buried pipe, or “ground loop” is the biggest technical advancement in geothermal heat pump technology to date. The idea to bury pipe in the ground to gather heat energy began in the 1940’s. But it’s only been in the last 25 years that new heat pump designs and improved pipe materials have been combined to make geothermal heat pumps the most efficient heating and cooling systems available.
Comfortable Air vs. Dry Air
Furnaces that burn fossil fuels have a heat exchanger that heats the air to be distributed throughout the house. Temperatures in the heat exchanger typically range from 300-400 degrees. These high temperatures burn the moisture out of the heated air leaving it dry and uncomfortable. With a geothermal heat pump, the air distributed throughout the house is typically 90-105 degrees. The air loses no humidity through this heat transfer leaving the heated air at comfortable humidity levels.
Customer Satisfaction
A study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency showed that geothermal heating & cooling systems have the lowest life-cycle cost of any system available today. The study also shows that geothermal systems have the lowest impact on our environment and consumers rank their comfort and satisfaction with geothermal systems higher than all others.
When comparing heating systems, safety, installation cost, operating costs and maintenance costs must be considered. To simplify the selection process, installation, operating and maintenance costs can be combined into a life-cycle cost…the cost of ownership over a period of years. The table below compares the various types of central heating systems:
| Safety | Installation Cost | Operating Cost | Maintenance Cost | LifeCycle Cost | |
| Combustion Based | A concern | Moderate | Moderate To High |
High | Moderate To High |
| Air Source Heat Pump |
Excellent | Moderate | Moderate | Moderate | Moderate |
| Geothermal | Excellent | High | Low | Low | Low |
Energy Saved…Environment Saved.
For every 100,000 units of typically sized residential geothermal heating & cooling systems installed, more than 37.5 trillion BTU’s of energy used for space conditioning and water heating can be saved corresponding to an emissions reduction of about 2.18 metric tons of CO2.
Eliminate Oil Dependence
Every 100,000 homes with a geothermal heating & cooling system reduces foreign oil consumption by 2.15 million barrels annually.
Heating, Cooling & Hot Water in a Single Unit
Unlike conventional fossil fuel systems which require multiple units ( a separate furnace, outside A/C condenser and water heater) a geothermal system combines all three in one convenient unit. And a geothermal system eliminates the need for venting exhaust gases because there is no combustion.