Home

Geothermal Heat Pump

27.04.11

A geothermal heat pump has different functions depending on the climatic conditions. During the summer months a geothermal pump transfers the excess heat into the earth while during the winter months, it draws heat from the earth and thus it can be called both a cooling as well as heating machinery at the same time. The most common confusion that is often observed is that geothermal pumps are thought to be the same as the machines that convert geothermal energy to electricity. This is not true and that is one reason as to why the names geoexchange or ground source heat pump are preferred to geothermal heat pump in order to avoid the misconception and confusion regarding the two. A geothermal heat pump is used primarily for heating as well as cooling purposes at a cheaper cost than the traditional methods. To increase the ability of a geothermal pump as a heating device, sometimes a solar heater may also be added to the device, making it a hybrid geosolar system.

The ingredient or the fluid that allows a pump to absorb the outside heat is known as the refrigerant. Once the underground heat is captured, the rooms connected to the pump are made warmer by spreading that captured heat into the room with the attached fans. This is however, what happens during the winter months. During the summer, the same refrigerant absorbs the heat inside the rooms that are attached to the pump and then releases it into the same place underground. There is actually not much difference in a geothermal heat pump and a normal heat pump, but the source as well as the dumping place of the heat is where the two differ. The geothermal pumps draw the heat from the core of the earth which is hardly affected by the outside temperature and therefore it remains a reliable and fairly constant source of heat. This stability of the temperature under the ground is what allows the pumps to both draw heat from under the ground during cold climates and also to unload the heat from the outside climates into the ground when it is hot outside, with better results.

Source: Biofuels Watch