Yes, which makes my username an oblique pun.Yamaha_R6 wrote:Is your avitar a SHADOW ship? Maybe I'll get an avitar to, a white star. Gotta love Babylon5 BEST SHOW EVER! (Behind DS9 that is)
I'm quite serious. The army was dumping some water down a fault at some town, and very quickly an earthquake was caused. I forget the details, sorry, I may be able to find my notes in September. But it is a real concern of scientists.Yamaha_R6 wrote:Water working as a lubricant???? I don't think so. Ever tried doing it in a hot tub? Water does anything but lube. Or so I have heard...........
Grasshopper wrote:I wonder about the riparian rights ramifications of all creekside residents taking a few calories a day through the winter from a creek. Would enough heat be taken that the water would stop flowing? Would all the heat-exchangers have to be rationed?
Seriously, I think it's a good space heating solution, which will eventually replace a lot of fuel oil and natural gas systems as the cost of fossil fuels rise. Being able to exchange heat from a large body of water, or flowing water is the most efficient approach, but if there is an aquifer (water-filled porous rock, as Devil mentioned) that you can get heat from, you are well off, too. A network of deeply trenched (more than 1 metre) piping on your own property will work, especially if there is an aquifer present (you don't have to pump the water out, just exchange heat through a loop).
You should get quotes from more than one contractor on the length of pipe and volume of system that you would need. I think I would only go this way (and I have been thinking about it) if I could install extra capacity so an especially cold or long winter would not result in the problems encountered by the bad example mentioned by Devil.
Power from the depths By Alma Gaul
The Beiderbecke Inn in Davenport's historic Gold Coast neighborhood is a 5,000-square-foot, Gothic-style mansion with high ceilings and lots of windows, built in the 1880s before anyone gave a thought to insulation.
Winter heat bills were, as you might imagine, sky high.
Then 3½ years ago, owners Dennis and Pam LaRoque had the home retrofitted, installing a geothermal heating and cooling system. Although this system was quite expensive upfront at least two times a conventional natural gas furnace their heating bills are less than half of what they once paid. We couldn't believe it, Pam LaRouque says. We love it. It was really a good deal.
My favorite system, the geothermal heat pump, is simply the very best there is. Most geothermal heating systems operate at close to 400 percent energy efficiency! Wow!
That's five times the efficiency of the 80 percent gas furnace. As this heat pump is extracting heat from Mother Earth, which is a constant 57 degrees, it is operating on minimal stress and using a very small amount of electricity to move the heat from the earth into the house.
With a geothermal system, you buy one unit of electricity (one unit of heat) and Mother Earth will give you three more units of heat for free. (That three units of heat is solar energy that Mr. Sunshine gave us over millions of years.) In future columns, we'll talk more about how air-to-air and geothermal heat pumps work
The furnace room in the new addition of West Twin Grove Christian Church west of Bloomington looks like any other. Two, shiny silver heat units purr steadily along one wall.
A series of black pipes attached to the opposite wall provide the only clues that this heating system may be a bit different from traditional natural gas or propane systems.
Standing in the new entryway of the church addition, trustee Mary Jane Miller attested to tangible differences. The temperature stays pretty constant, so Miller never feels cold.
She's also seen the first month's bill for the new, 6,000-square-foot addition -- $130 for heat and lights. Bills for the older portion of the church typically amount to $500 per month.
The Ithaca Green Building Alliance, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County, and Sustainable Tompkins will present "Geothermal and Solar HVAC Strategies," where Robb Jetty of Renovus Energy, Inc. will explain geo-exchange heating and cooling systems, as well as solar hot water systems. The class will be 7-8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 1 at the Social Services Building, 320 W. State St., Ithaca.
Geo-exchange systems use refrigeration technology and the earth's constant year-round temperature as either a source for heat or a place for heat absorption depending on the heating or cooling demand of a building. The EPA considers geo-exchange systems to be the most energy efficient and environmentally friendly way to heat and/or cool buildings. Recent advances in the solar thermal industry make these systems more efficient in "cloudy" Ithaca.
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