Financial Benefits Of Geothermal Power
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by: AlfieReynolds | Total views: 17 | Word Count: 644
If you're looking to be able to save money on your energy bills by using renewable energy, you only have a few options. One is to use solar energy, either by generating electricity with PV solar panels, or for heating with solar thermal panels. Another option though is to use heat pumps, with ground source heat pumps that make use of geothermal power being one of the main ones.
Geothermal Power Uses
There's two main ways in which geothermal power can be used. Either with ground source heat pumps, or else to create electricity at a power station. In that case, it works in much the same way as conventional power station, except instead of having the water heated by fossil fuels it comes from the latent heat stored underground. They're not used much though because there are only a few locations where they would be efficient enough for that.
When it comes to ground source heat pumps though, they are much more common. They can be used anywhere, as you do not need a large amount of heat. Any heating that the heat pump does not perform can be taken on by the boiler, but as it already has warm water to deal with a lot less heating is required.
Efficiency Of Heat Pumps
Actually the question of how efficient heat pumps are is not the most pertinent one. That's because the calculation for efficiency takes in to account the energy that you have to provide as well as the energy that comes from nature.
The coefficient of performance is a much better guide for how good heat pumps are then. That's because this measures only how much energy you have to put in to get the amount of energy out. The only energy that has to be put in to a heat pump by us is the electrical energy to get the pumps to turn.
So when we look at the coefficient of performance, that has a value of 3-5 with ground source heat pumps. That means for every unit of electrical energy put in, you get to 3-5 times more heat energy out. If we were to translate that in to efficiency, it would mean it was 300-500% efficient.
Environmental Advantages
The advantage to the environment for you getting your heating needs dealt with in this way is that your carbon footprint will be reduced by a significant amount. That's because the more energy you get from renewable sources, the less is required from burning fossil fuels.
The reason that the carbon footprint is so important of course is because of global warming. Man-made global warming is caused by the dumping of thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide in to the atmosphere. CO2 is a greenhouse gas, so this leads to warming. By reducing the amount emitted, we lessen the effects of global warming.
Advantages Financially
We can translate financial benefits directly from these environmental advantages of course. The less energy you need from a conventional supplier, the less money you are going to have to pay on energy bills. To determine whether the savings are worth it or not though, you have to consider the cost of the installation.
If cost is a particular concern, then it might not be ground source heat pumps that you want at all though. Air source heat pumps are a cheaper option, although not quite as effective. The most effective option is to get a vertical ground source heat pump installation, as that gets you the most amount of heat. A cheaper alternative is a horizontal installation.
Very soon you will also be able to make use of a government scheme which is set to make heat pumps an even better investment. That is the renewable heat incentive, and it will work by paying you per unit of heat energy produced. It works in the same way as the feed in tariff does for solar energy right now.
About the Author
To learn more regarding ground source heat pumps, Harry Lloyd writes a lot more on this subject at geothermal power. Find out additional information about how it all works, such as the amount of money you'll be able to make, and get a free quote for an installation.
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