Zerofootprint: Strange Bedfellows
by Ron Dembo, Zerofootprint on 05.18.06
What do the Queen of England, the rapper 50 Cent and George Bush have in common? It is not their political persuasion, the cars they drive or their bankers. They all have homes heated and cooled with geo-exchange heat pumps.
Geo what?
Geo-exchange is a technology that our ancestors in caves used.
A few feet underground, the temperature is constant year round. So, in winter when its cold, the cave feels warm, and in summer when it's hot, the cave feels cool. We can exploit this fact to heat and cool our homes and guess what, it doesn't consume oil.
Geo-exchange simply takes water and pumps it underground through a long pipe and uses the fact that it comes out the other side at 50 F or 10 C no matter where we are in the world (more of less). If it is hot outside, say 100 F, this cool water can be used to air-condition your home. If it is cold outside, say 0 F, this 'hot' water can be used to heat your home. Commercial systems add a compressor to all of this to enhance the effect, much like you fridge does at home.
The earth is a big sink at a constant temperature and there is enough of it to heat and cool or houses and buildings, even entire cities. It is a well-kept secret that over 1 million homes in the US use geo-exchange systems. That's great news. Just to put it in perspective, for every million homes using geo-exchange instead of traditional oil or natural gas HVAC systems in the United States, CO2 emissions are reduced by 9 billion pounds (4 billion kilos). That would be the equivalent of converting about 600,000 cars to zero-emission vehicles, or planting more than one million acres of trees. It is crazy that we are not using geo-exchange wherever we can. We would cut down pollution, reduce our dependency on imported oil and it would be cheaper to boot. The Swedes do a lot of it and they have vowed to be the first country in the world to be free from oil by 2020.
So, what's a nice anti-environmentalist like George doing with one of the most environmentally friendly forms of heating and cooling? Perhaps he has discovered that it is much less costly to operate than heating and cooling with fossil fuels and electricity? Maybe he wants to be 'off-the-grid'? George? 'Off-the-grid'? You've got to be kidding!
But, can you imagine how the pollution levels in cities and our dependence on oil and natural gas would change if everybody followed George's example?
[Ron Dembo, Founder and CEO, Zerofootprint]
so what's the deal? you design and install, where? anywhere?
...and finance?
"End-users (owners or tenants) occupying buildings equipped with Zerofootprint’s services pay a fixed, flat fee for their heating, cooling and hot water – a fee that is both less than their current traditional oil or gas bill and guaranteed never to increase."
do you have financing option that not only make it 'the same price as conventional haetaing systems' but where the homeowner actually owns their system after the 3-4 years that it's paid off? or is it only the monthly bills guaranteed to never go up? more info?
Geothermal heating systems are great. They actually pay for themselves in just a few years , especially for places without access to natural gas. They also reduce propane/heating oil consumption by tons per year. We are getting one in, and will have a/c at about 1/4 the cost and heating at about 1/3 the cost. If the US were to go crazy installing geothermal, peak summer electrical load would cease to rise, making a real difference in air quality. This is an example of a green tech that actually works. (As compared to solar panels, wind, v8 hybrids). If you want to see how it all works go to http://www.climatemaster.com/ for example.
There is so much to gain on the conservation side in North America. We just have to get off the consumption 'need more' ideas.
I'm not prepared to go into geat detail just yet but I'm an owner of one of four urban residential townhouses currently being build that with use a very advanced form of geothermal energy. We project our system will give us between 70-80% efficiency over a convential heating/cooling system (oil fired, electric, gas). Regular geothermal gives about 40-50% and geoexchange gives about 50-60% efficiency. Our houses will be completed in a couple of months in August. We would like to then have a post on treehugger.com detailing the system and its design. We are also currently working on putting together a documentary video of the building of the system. Maybe treehuggerTV would like to post the doc video?
Doug-
Sounds great. I'd suggest getting in touch with Graham directly (graham AT treehugger). I bet he'll at least go for a post on the subject.
I heard that standard heat pumps do not work well in the Northeast because it gets too clold, they are better suited for warmer climates.
How do Geothermal systems rate in the Northeast? What is used in these systems to boost the heat up from the 50 degrees that it maintains, to a comfortable indoor room temperature? Is it the current heating system used in the home or is there other technology incorporated into the geothermal system?
Jason,
There are groundsource heat pumps designed for cold regions and they are very efficient. You may have heard they don't work well in cold climates if someone was referring to using a heat pump primarily designed for air conditioning or an air-source heat pump.
There is no magic to the system. They run a compressor which is how it "boosts" 50 temp to your 70 living temps.
For the record, I'm a geothermal design/install engineer in BC.
My only concern with these pumps is the use of water (which in many areas is a scarcity due to droughts and what-not). What is the feasibility of using something else as a heat-exchange fluid? Something like ammonia?
In response to SydBarrett74, the water used in geoexchange (actually a mix of water and antifreeze) is in a closed loop and is recycled through the system, so it's a one time use, adn does not need to be replaced.
I recently replaced my propane heating system and electric air conditioning with a geothermal system manufactured by Water Furnace (waterfurnace.com). The payback in my case will be about six years, maybe less when price increases of propane are factored in. I am reducing the amount of propane burned in my furnace by 1,500 gallons per year (30,000 gallons over the expected 20 year life of the system). Although my electrical usage went up during the winter, it went down in the summer and nets out about the same as before I put the system in. Everyone should investigate these systems. Although they are costly to install, they seem to be a free ride from the environmental standpoint and the payback period is not that long.