how geothermal heat pumps can soar like solar - in a heat pump

Geothermal heat pump (GHP)
It's a niche market.
They shouldn't.
A better mousetrap?
Ralph Waldo Emerson never said, "build a better mousetrap and the world will defeat the road to your doorstep.
"The Mousetrap was most likely invented seven years after his death.
Unfortunately, many people think this is true.
GHPs have all the features of a better mousetrap: They heat and cool buildings more efficiently than any other option.
Although the rise is even greater
Before the cost, they are a mature technology that is usually the most economical option to accommodate their buildings.
GHPs can not only reduce the energy cost of heating and cooling by up to 80%, but can also provide other benefits, such as basically free hot water in cooling mode, reducing dependence on fossil fuels, and the exclusion of outdoor ground equipment.
These advantages have earned GHPs a small but dedicated worship of true believers, but have not been widely recognized by the market.
The world has not yet made its way to the GHP gate.
On the contrary, the market share of GHPs is not high, just a slight increase.
A study by Frost and sullivanproject predicts that the GHPs market for commercial buildings in North America will grow at the age of 7.
The annual rate of 8% is from 2012, 4.
7% faster than the entire North American climate control market.
An industry representative pointed out to me a navigation study that expects the world installation base to increase from 13.
3 million tons to 36 tons.
2 million tons in 2020, see the figure below.
Unfortunately, the growth of the installation base is unmatched compared to the industry sales.
For a young industry with a low installation base, sales are about an increase in the installation base.
I looked at the chart and got an annual estimate of world sales from the chart and found that Navigant expects sales to grow less than 5% between 2013 and 2015, followed by rapid growth (20-30%)
Within the time frame of 2016 to 2018.
Navant's discussion made it clear that later rapid growth required a recovery in the economy and easier access to capital.
In the short term, Navigant's research seems less optimistic than Frost & Sullivan's, and it is more optimistic in the medium and long term.
Using both forecasts, an annual market share growth close to 5% is clearly not the type of market transformation that many would expect for "better mousetrap.
"Navigation Company expects that the rapid growth of the market after 2015 depends largely on the convenience of capital?
Are other factors hindering the GHP market?
Last month, when I asked if the air source heat pump posed a threat to the geothermal heat pump supplier, the siege of MentalityI touched some of my nerves, despite the fact that I used "no.
"Except in a mild climate, Super
The case of an insulated house, or installation of a geothermal heat pump (GHP)
It will be particularly difficult for GHPs to have better economic conditions.
Despite recent progress in air source heat pumps (ASHP)
Technology, which made me ask this question first.
While hot water can be provided in many GHP systems, hot water is not provided in ASHPs.
Also, as the recent heavy snow in the Northeast shows, there are some advantages to having heat exchangers that are not exposed to elements (see pic).
Why be blunt considering all these advantages?
I suspect this is because the sales of geothermal heat pumps continue to be disappointing and supporters are looking for someone to blame. ASHPs in Net-
Another goal for geothermal advocates is Marc Rosenbaum (Marc Rosenbaum)
He teaches online network zero energy family courses in the building energy Masters series of the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association. )
He was also angry when he recommended the mini air source heat pump (ASHPs)
For most single-account network zero households (
I have widely quoted Rosenbaum in my last post. )
About Putney school 16,000-square-foot Net-
Zero House
The team that designed the building used GHP to simulate its heating costs and also used ASHPs with additional solar PV to provide the additional power needed to run ASHPs.
They found it cheaper to expand the solar system to power ASHPs than to pay for the extra installation of GHP.
In addition, since the completion of the putenita House, the price of solar energy has dropped sharply;
There is no ground loop price for GHP.
Nevertheless, Rosenbaum's preference for ASHPs in highly insulated buildings does not explain the low growth rate of ghps market share.
Net zero construction is an exception, not a rule, with a much lower market share than geothermal heat pumps.
When the heating load is very low, the operational cost advantage of higher efficiency of GHPs is not enough to reimburse the additional installation cost.
This is not the case in 99 years.
9% of new buildings and existing buildings today.
Despite my own significant improvements, GHPs ElseMy in almost all places has its own home, a farmhouse built in 1930, which is much less efficient and needs to be zero than net
I don't have enough roof space for photovoltaic power generation to make up for the extra energy consumption, even if it can be done economically.
I chose four tube-free mini skirts instead of the GHP System, but this is because the mini skirts allow me to install without adding air ducts.
Adding air ducts to my 85 year old home will greatly increase the cost and disruption of installing GHP systems.
ClimateMaster, LSB industry (NYSE:LXU)
, Making a pipeline-free split system called the Tranquility Console series that might fit my needs, but until I get a comment on the earlier version of this article telling me about it, I didn't know about it, and I didn't talk to any Geothermal Installers.
Unfortunately, the efficiency rating is low for GHPs with COP 3.
3 configuration in the ground ring.
This is not much better than the Mitsubishi air source unit I installed and it runs under the COP of about 2 --
The outdoor temperature is 10 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit, more than 3 degrees.
3 COP when ambient temperature is 35 °F or higher.
The increased efficiency at low temperatures may not be enough to cover the cost of the ground circuit, but I would love to get a quote.
Renewable energy (
TSX: WFI, OTC: wypf)
Envision series console with slightly higher heating efficiency (up to 3. 5 COP)
For some models.
In most cases, GHPs are economical, and other factors will certainly hinder them.
The relative complexity of geothermal systems may be a questionable issue.
As Rosenbaum said, given the large mini-TV
The upfront cost of the GHP System, the risk of poor installation may prevent non-professionals from using GHP, even more than the risk that it prevents experienced professionals such as Rosenbaum from using GHP
The solution to the curse of complexity installation risk is to verify GHPs performance on site and track the source of the problem.
When contractors lose the ability to blame others for their own mistakes, they will soon stop making them or fail.
Without such monitoring, it is almost impossible to track the increased use of electricity.
I talked to my colleague Matt Davis recently.
Founder of ground energy support, professor of hydrology, New Hampshire University.
Ground energy support provides GHP monitoring to GHP owners and contractors, as well as data and analysis to support industry development.
Ground energy support recently released a 14-page guide for homeowners of geothermal heat pump systems.
While I find the guide easy to understand, it makes it clear that GHPs are not suitable for everyone.
The beginning of the guide directly helps homeowners decide whether they and the House are suitable for GHP, while its length indirectly indicates that GHPs are not always "plug-and-play ".
"The six pages dedicated to finding and selecting the right GHP installer indirectly indicate that the process is not suitable for anyone interested in GHPs and the savings they bring.
If GHPs become commonplace, the process of financing and purchasing a reliable GHP System must be simplified to the name on the phone book.
Success of SolarCity (NASD:SCTY)
Providing solar energy to homeowners who are more interested in green on their checking accounts, rather than the green of their electricity, shows the potential.
This success is based on SolarCity's ability to provide financing, installation, maintenance and performance verification services internally.
What homeowners need to do is pay the monthly electricity bill.
The value proposition is simple: Trouble-
Free installation and savings from day one.
SolarCity of geothermal heat pumps also has the economic potential to provide the same value proposition: easy installation from day one and reliable savings.
But if the industry is to achieve this potential, there are a few things that have to be combined: we already have the corporate and financial structure to bring the solar rental model to GHPs.
In fact, it is almost no need to imagine seeing a solar leasing company acquire or work with GHP installers and provide geothermal leasing and solar leasing to its customers.
In a cold climate, such as the northeastern United States, known for its sunny winter, the potential economic benefits of GHPs are far superior to solar photovoltaic.
These economic factors should be able to achieve a very attractive GHP rental once the other parts are in place.
First of all, homeowners and geothermal leasing companies must have a reliable and objective way to monitor the performance of GHP systems.
Geothermal monitoring ground energy support is addressing this issue through its GXTracker, which monitors the heat output of the ground loop and monitors or simulates the electricity consumption of the pump itself.
Thermal production monitoring let everyone know if a system is running as designed and helps diagnose problems when it is not running.
Of the 30 GHP System ground energy support that has been monitored for the past two and a half years, 60% of the systems have some operational, maintenance or mechanical problems.
Most of them are minor maintenance issues or incorrect settings, which only results in a slight drop in performance, but the situation gets worse if not found.
But 17% of the system has major problems in design or installation.
The third of these is the oversized system, which can lead to higher energy costs, but may be the result of homeowner preferences.
The third one is easy to fix, not the fault of the installer: The fault heat pump (
Within warranty)
, And an open air duct for an unfinished garage. The rest (
High pumping loss due to too large pump or too small pipe and too small grounding circuit)
If the homeowner was able to check the installer's records, what could have been avoided --
Another potential benefit of ubiquitous monitoring.
Another way that proper monitoring of GHPs may help the industry is to implement incentives for renewable heat production in geothermal underground loops, similar to incentives for photovoltaic power generation.
The Massachusetts legislature is currently working on a bill that allows the use of renewable fuels for heating and cooling, benefiting from the same incentives that the state gives renewable power.
The bill states that the Heat must "pass on-
On-Site Utility grade table "or similar meaning.
Conclusion advocates of geothermal heat pumps should spend less time theoretically discussing the attractive economics of GHPs that have been established and spending more time providing these economics.
The key to this is to make the customer's purchase process simple while providing verification and taking responsibility if these economic factors are not achievable.
While GHPs are not the best option for every household, in many climate conditions, most of these families will benefit more than the new traditional heating and cooling systems.
Solar leasing is a great model for leveraging renewable energy systems and making them attractive to the public.
The GHP industry can go down this path, but it must first adopt reliable monitoring as a standard function.
This will hold installers accountable for their design and implementation, while convincing customers that they will be paid.
Adopting monitoring can start with customers wanting to know that their systems are running as designed.
It can also start with states like Massachusetts that provide incentives for verifiable renewable heat production, or an installer decides to open the market by providing geothermal leasing.
Update: It looks like at least one installer Orca Energy has partnered with GHP manufacturer Bosch thermal technology to provide geothermal leasing to new house developers.
Due to lower installation costs and easier design, the new house is a natural starting point for residential geothermal leasing.
In my opinion, the group that has the most revenue and the most influence is the GHP manufacturer.
If they use monitoring as a standard feature, they may be able to catalyst the market themselves.
As far as Davis is aware, there is only renewable energy in the boiler (
TSX: WFI, OTC: wypf.
I own this stock. )
AndModine Manufacturing Company (NYSE:MOD)
Any form of energy monitoring is currently available.
Modding is part of their choice.
In this regard, the water stove seems to go the farthest.
The most advanced sensors in Waterfurnace are standard (and efficient)
Model, 7 Series.
According to the company, the thermostat retains data on energy use for 13 months.
I am asking if heat production is included.
I suspect that the additional cost of setting this monitoring standard will be compensated for greater customer satisfaction and increased sales.
Is this the start of a step by the manufacturer in the direction of better monitoring, or is it a bottom-up change?
If sales of geothermal heat pumps will soar, then the changes will come from somewhere.