Did you know that the "well" that supplies your drinking water may be an excellent source of "renewable", geothermal energy. This is the energy that a geothermal heat pump uses to heat and cool a home and it's sitting right in your own back yard. These systems have no fumes, no flames, and very little maintenance. You can even get alot of your domestic hot water from these systems as a by-product. These systems have been around for many years and are now one of the preferred ways of heating and cooling homes in the world. This technology relies primarily on the Earth's natural thermal energy, a renewable resource, to heat or cool your home. Geoexchange Systems work on a different principle than an ordinary furnace or air conditioning system, and they require little maintenance or attention from homeowners. Furnaces create heat by burning fuel such as oil. With Geoexchange Systems, there's no need to create heat, instead, the earth's natural heat is collected in the Winter from your well water by Geoexchange System inside your home using an electrically-driven compressor and heat exchangers in a vapor compression cycle. The same principle employed in a refrigerator. In the Summer, the process is reversed, by the same unit, to cool your home. Excess heat is drawn from the home and absorbed by the Earth.

The efficiency of a Geothermal System can be as much as 300 to 400 percent, giving off 3 to 4 units of energy for every one unit used.

One of the most effective ways to use this system in the Northeast is the Standing Column Well System which in alot of cases is the same water source that we use for our drinking water. For more information on how to heat or cool your home with your water well, please contact us or go to:
www.igshpa.okstate.edu, www.northeastgeo.com or www.mainegeothermal.com.
Bob Philbrick is a member of the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association (IGSHPA) and is an accredited installer and designer.