How about geothermal, for every 100ft you get an average increase of 5 degrees.
Read about the Comstock mine, at 3000 ft down you have a temp of 200+ degrees. A hell of a place to work but if you’re looking for geothermal heat it’s a great example. Now the temps will vary based upon geography but if you go down far enough you’ll get plenty of heat.
Just drop in a coil on the end of two pipes, fill it full of some liquid that is not going to breakdown or corrode the pipes. Hook up a circulation pump and plug in a heat exchanger on the top end and vola, you could then place the heat exchanger into an existing forced air system. Should work as well as a heat pump, system would have to be pretty hefty for colder climates. I would guess that a good deep well drilling rig could reach those kind of depths.
Should save a great deal of energy, all you’re paying for is the electricity to run the pump and you might be able to go solar with the right array setup. I would suppose you could use the same system for hot water. Just make sure you’re using a submersible heat exchanger.
You know the same system would work for cooling also. You would just make it a shallow system, were the temps are in the 50 degree range.
I’ve got a schematic for the system laying around someplace. Let me know if you’re interested.
I’ve been meaning to use a similar setup under my driveway so I don’t have to shovel the snow off of it in the winter. Ah, another for the to do list.
Free heat free cooling.
Well there is a slight 
inital cost
Yes you could run the heat exchanger to a steam turbine, then a generator much the same way the nuke reactors work.
No the pump wouldn’t need to be massive, you’re just circulating not doing a “dead pull” no heavy head pressure required, In fact you might not even need a pump, for heating. Ergo heat rises cold falls…
OK you can come over and install this next week, by the way try not to disturb the house when you are diggin the hole a 1000′ below it.
Don’t get me wrong at least you are trying.
Free!? I would have to live to be 100 to cover those costs, but if I win the lottery I’m gonna look into it!
oh why not use the heat to generate electricity too?
What you can do is run a much shallower well that you can use to draw the 50 degree year round temperatures, then use a more traditional heater (natural gas, propane, or electricty) set-up to bring the temperature of it up both during the summer and the winter.
I have a friend who had a geotherm system professionally installed with his new house, he loves it. I don’t know the details but he’s a financial counselor and he would not have done it unless there was a pretty good payback. If you’re building a house, consider that you’ll be making mortgage payments and utility payments, BUT the savings will continue after the system is paid for.
I believe that you’d need quite a hefty pump to apply enough pressure to lift a fluid up some several hundred feet!
Or is there something I’m missing?
