What are Ground Source Heat Pumps?
Ground Source Heat Pumps harness solar energy which is stored in bedrock, groundwater and soil as a heat source. While Ground Source Heat Pumps use electricity to operate, the technology of the pump manages to convert this into five times as much heat-energy for every unit of electricity used.
Ground source heat pumps can be installed nearly anywhere, but it depends on the type of area and land that surrounds the property. There are 3 ways in which a 40mm geothermal pipe can be installed into the ground:
Surface Collector
When we are in the summer months, the Sun warms the ground and the heat trapped within the soil. That heat is collected by a plastic pipe which is planted only one metre under the surface, with each length at least one metre apart. An environmentally friendly, non freezing solution is then passed around which in turn collects the heat and sends it to the heat pump.
The pipe needed to collect the heat has to be between 200 and 600 metres, depending on how much demand there is and the size of the heat pump that has been installed. The surface ground collector is cost effective where there is a lot of land available, with higher the water content of the soil the better.
Borehole Collector
A borehole tends to require a much smaller ground area then a surface collector, but it is also more expensive. A borehole collector type heat pump is normally suited to replacing an existing fossil fuel boiler. The heat collected using this type of heat pump is similar to the ground collector apart from the u-shaped collector is sunk into a borehole. The depth of the borehole is dependant on the size of the heat pump and can be achieved along a number of separate boreholes, around 15 metres apart.
The size of the depth is usually between 70 to 200 metres, which needs to be carried out by a specialist contractor; this can also incur a requirement of permission depending of local conditions.
If there is a large body of water situated close to your house, you can have collector piping planted at the bottom of the pond. The stored solar energy is collected through the piping that is buried one metre underground, equidistant from house and pond.
Are you Interested?
If you wish to find out more on ground source heat pumps, or wish to find out how Robert Heath can help you with installing the technology, contact us via our Renewable energy technology contact form.
