Will a geothermal energy system be enough to heat a home in the winter and cool it in the summer, or will we need another source of heating and cooling as a backup?
More Pages:
- Solar Energy: Is Geothermal Energy Renewable? Why Or Why Not? ? (5/24/2012)
- Solar Energy: Is There Any Advantage To Pre-cooling The Water In A Swamp Cooler? (4/18/2012)
- Solar Energy: How Much Does It Cost To Have Solar Heating Installed? (4/18/2012)
- Solar Energy: How Can We Combine Geothermal And Solar To Provide A Total Energy Solution For A Home? (1/14/2012)
- Solar Products: Has Anyone Used Solar Inserts On A Conservatory Roof And, If So, Were They Effective? (3/26/2012)
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You might need a limited back up, but then all systems need them.
You are probably referring to ground loops. Those are not geothermal energy, real geothermal energy requires drilling a well about 2 miles into the ground preferably at a fault to heat water with the heat of the molten Earth which is about 25 miles below us. The heated steam is then used to drive a turbine to generate power. Just drilling the well would cost hundreds of millions and can only be done in a few locations until our drilling technology improves. What a ground loop does is use a volume of Earth as a large thermal mass. This usually involves drilling hundreds of shallow wells or burying loops with soil. They serve as a diurnal thermal store or a seasonal store if they are deep enough. As soil is actually a good insulator, a large volume of soil must be tapped to avoid “charging” the soil. Such systems do not provide energy but may help heating and cooling systems be more efficient. Ground loops require another source of energy because it isn’t energy.