permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

Claude William Genest wrote:

> Geothermal is quite the rage here in Quebec. It's apparently the best  
> option compared to solar and wind ( for house hating/cooling) you  
> don't need to convert it to space heating as you heat the whole floor  
> ( and in summer that same constant 55 degree temp helps keep it  
> cool). If you have a pond, you can use that instead of the earth and  
> thereby reduce the costs of digging substantially.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [SANET-MG] Energy Savings (off-topic)
Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2006 21:03:23 -0500
From: Dylan Ford <dford@SUFFOLK.LIB.NY.US>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

Folks, In reference to the ongoing energy discussions, I heard a fellow on
the radio today who is a member of the Ground Heat Power Consortium. He was
talking about building homes, businesses, and housing complexes with
inexpensive supplemental geothermal systems. He also discussed how existing
buildings may be retrofitted, some easier and cheaper than others.

Below a depth of about 10 feet the earth remains at a constant temp of about
55 degrees years round. A shaft is drilled, a U-shaped pipe a hundred or
more feet long is installed, and water is circulated through it and the
building. Thus no matter how cold the winter, you start heating the building
from a 55 degree base temp, and the same applies to cooling it in the
summer. He says that the savings in heating and cooling a building is about
35%. He also suggested that if the building codes were changed nationally to
promote this supplemental energy catching, America could meet the terms of
the Kyoto Protocols with no other changes.

I caught two of the information websites he mentioned, but have not had a
chance to more than glance at them:
www.geoexchange.org
www.igshpa.okstate.edu

dylan

Dylan Ford is the author of the proposal at www.ideaforpresident.com , a
website devoted to an idea that could provide an avenue to address pollution
issues, food safety, social justice, prison reform and healthcare.