Geothermal Heat
I'd always thought that only worked when there was lots of volcanic activity in the area, as in Iceland. According to Malcolm Gladwell and his dad, however, it just takes a hole in the ground and some pipes and can be done anyplace you have the space to dig the necessary trenches.
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I'm getting tired of these motherfucking snakes in this motherfucking geothermal trench!
August 19, 2006 2:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
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January 14, 2011 6:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
The system described, with heat exchange loops laid in shallow trenches, isn't the only one available. I have a largish pond in my backyard, and an excellent well, so I have open to me two other options not mentioned: The loops can be laid in the bottom of the pond, or the system can simply run off well water.
I'm planing on investing in that latter version, as the payback time vs my current propane heat is about a year. Which is darned close to printing money!
Once correction, though, to the Gladwell's description, in case they've scared anyone unnecessarilly about combustion furnaces: They *do* burn oxygen, but the air that's had it's oxygen consumed goes out visa this system called a "chimney", rather than being breathed by the house's occupants.
August 19, 2006 3:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for your patience and sorry for the inconvenience!
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December 17, 2010 6:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Geothermal and wind power indeed have potential. Has anyone considered, however, quantifying and harnessing the hot air produced and blown at high speed by a session of Congress? Of course, the density and level of waste energy is probably substantially higher at a Presidential press conference.
--
Howard
*equal opportunity offense to both extremes*
August 19, 2006 4:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
This system has been around for a long time. In France, it's known as a puit provençal (Provence well), used in the South East of the country to cool houses during the summer. The underground piping used to be made of terracotta, which had the additional benefit of balancing the hygrometry of the cooled air.
Gladwell version is a bit more sophisticated but is pretty much in the same vein.
PS: Oh, yeah. I forgot. Watch out for radon in regions with basalt or granite bedrocks. Inproperly designed, those underground exchangers can transform themselves in radon collectors.
No, you can't have your own facts!
August 19, 2006 4:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Add shale, dirty quartz sedimentary rocks, and phosphate deposits as other sources of radon.
August 19, 2006 5:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
A friend of mine built a new house in central Illinois, where it tends to get a bit hot in the summer. His air conditioning bills with a ground-coupled heat exchanger were about 20% of similar convetionally-AC'd houses in the area. He figured a 4 year payback.
Admittedly he also had 5 acres to work with.
sPh
August 20, 2006 10:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
August 20, 2006 10:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry about the formatting on that one; the Edit button wouldn't let me fix it.
sPh
August 20, 2006 10:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
In US history? I think Poor Richard was the first to propose it, but I doubt the idea was original with him. The Babylonians probably had the same thought.
sPh
August 20, 2006 10:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ah, no. The system he's talking about involves simply drawing air into the house through buried pipes. No heat pump, fluid, or heat exchanger.
August 20, 2006 2:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Brett Bellmore has an environmentally sound backyard? What is the world coming to.
August 21, 2006 11:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yup, sixteen acres of enviromentally sound pond, brush, and woods. Can't hunt and fish in a parking lot, after all. ;)
August 21, 2006 5:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
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March 25, 2011 7:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
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April 12, 2011 7:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
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May 5, 2011 5:11 AM | Reply | Permalink