Ground water heat pumps: new wave in load control
The ground-water heat pump is significant because it requires very little energy to operate. Electric utilities should find it relatively easy to incorporate the heat pump into energy conservation and load management programs. The potential savings should be enough to sell large numbers of suburban commercial and suburban and rural residential customers on the idea. And since present designs effectively return all water taken in, highly populated areas where ground water or ponds are not readily available might be able to tap directly off deeply buried water mains. The ground water heat pump can also be a reliable system. In 1948, Dr. Carl Nielsen, a pioneer of the ground-water heat pump and a physics professor at Ohio State University, installed a 12,000 Btu per hour ground water heat pump to condition a 500 ft/sup 2/ vacation cottage. By 1955, Nielsen had installed a 20,000 Btu per hour unit to condition his 2000-ft/sup 2/ two story-home. Both units are still working and the newer unit needs but two kilowatts of electricity and 2.5 gallons of water per minute to operate. The Battelle Memorial Institute also uses the ground-water heat pump at its Columbus, OH test site. There are two reasons that make the ground-water heat pump the ideal heat pump system. First, the temperature of shallow ground water (with the exception of Alaska) ranges from about 40/sup 0/F along our northern boundary to about 75/sup 0/F in southern Florida. These temperatures fall within the ground-water heat pump's efficient operating limits. Second, the temperature of ground water varies little, if at all, regardless of surface temperature extremes. (MCW)
- OSTI ID:
- 5286178
- Journal Information:
- Electr. Light Power (Boston); (United States), Vol. 56:1
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
POLICY AND ECONOMY
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
ELECTRIC UTILITIES
HEAT PUMPS
LOAD MANAGEMENT
ENERGY CONSERVATION
GROUND WATER
USES
OPERATION
AIR CONDITIONING
COST
ECONOMIC IMPACT
EFFICIENCY
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
LEGAL ASPECTS
PUBLIC OPINION
RELIABILITY
SPACE HEATING
WATER RESOURCES
HEAT EXCHANGERS
HEATING
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
MANAGEMENT
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PUBLIC UTILITIES
WATER
291000* - Energy Planning & Policy- Conservation
320303 - Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization- Industrial & Agricultural Processes- Equipment & Processes
320101 - Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization- Residential Buildings- (-1987)
296000 - Energy Planning & Policy- Electric Power