I understand that it is essentially a loop in which a refrigerant travels around through the Earth's interior either cooling or heating and in the end expending that temperature into a home or building..as we know, technology is always progressing and ways of becoming more innovative and efficient are always just around the corner...so my question is...1.) What are some efforts or discoveries that increase the efficiency of the energy conversion in the process of Geothermal heating and cooling? So from what I interpret, are there any new ways to make the refrigerant travel faster...different types of refrigerant that are more efficient...a compressor that is able to get the job done more efficiently...etc...I had an idea though, I heard different types of refrigerants can be used such as air, water...etc???
we live in Northwest NJ. We put in geothermal in 1996. The preliminary value to place it in grew to become into high priced. We had placed an addition onto our domicile and grew to become into in prefer of a clean furnace, plus we would have cherished flow pug in finished domicile efficient air. the great value grew to become into putting interior the device because of value of the wells, 2 deep wells have been dug (there are no longer water properly, yet are drilled an identical way). We have been instructed we would have the return from our investment in 7 years, we figured we had it in a minimum of five years and nevertheless saving now. the completed each year value of our capability is below $3000. that includes, all heating, air con, cooking, inground pool, washing device dryer, all home equipment , electronics and lighting fixtures furniture. this could properly be a 2750sq feet. domicile. in this section a lot of our acquaintances spend $3000 or greater for domicile heating oil on my own! we adore the geothermal, the heating is humidified and filtered, and the air con is dehumidified and filtered. this is been a great capability value by way of the years.
Your understanding is not accurate. The system may use a well, a surface loop or a loop in a lake but it is inefficient to send refrigerant through such a large loop. Rather the refrigerant passes through a heat exchanger. This heat exchanger is configured as an evaporator or condenser depending upon how the system is presently working (to heat or to cool.) The heat exchangers on a window air conditioner are refrigerant to air but these are refrigerant to liquid which is more efficient. The liquid is the pumped through a loop or the system may not be a closed system and water may be pumped from one well and after passing through the heat exchanger be pumped to another well in an open system. Some of the more modern innovations that have been used in refrigeration and air conditioning include the use of DC motors that are speed controlled depending upon load. Modern high efficiency units are heavily dependent upon electronics and sensors to maintain an efficient rating above 21 SEER. Geothermal units should be far more efficient due to the liquid cooling. The newer units also use refrigerants that operate at more than double the head pressure of some of the older units. Water Vapor can be a refrigerant however it tends to damage compressors. A while ago I saw a compressor design that attempted to overcome this: st-div.web.cern.ch/st-div/worksho...
I concur with the prior poster that your understanding is not accurate Basically a Geothermal HVAC (or Ground Source Heat Pump) uses water or a water/antifreeze mixture in the heat exchanger. This water is either recirculated in a very long underground pipe system (closed system) or drawn from a well, lake or other water source (open system). In cooling mode (A/C) a geothermal heat pump uses refrigerant to move heat from the building into the water via a heat exchanger. In heating mode, it operates in the reverse and moves heat from the water to the refrigerant and ultimately the building. A standard heat pump operates in the same manner however instead of using ground temperature water, it uses ambient temperature outdoor air. The greatest advantages of geothermal heat pumps in a 4 season climate is that they are much more efficient than the alternative when outdoor temperatures are at their extremes. For example: When it is 25F outside, my geothermal system is pumping heat from 55F groundwater into my 70F house. (Standard system is pumping heat from 25F air into a 70F house) When it is 95F outside, my system pumps heat from my 74F house into 55F water (standard system is pumping heat into 95F air) When outdoor temps are the same as the groundwater, geothermal systems aren't as efficient because you are powering a water pump vs a fan. In climates with 3 or less seasons, geothermal systems aren't as efficient, especially if they are closed systems. Now to answer your question, the innovations which are increasing the efficiency of geotherm systems are the same innovations which are increasing the efficiency of standard air exchange systems. Most of the energy consumed by a HVAC system is being consumed by the the refrigerant compressor and advances in compressor motors is allowing for much greater efficiency.
