This process achieves nearly a 400% efficiency rating.
I am very concerned about my impact on the environment. I worry about the future of our planet and hope to do my part to protect it. My efforts to minimize my carbon footprint include riding my bicycle and taking public transportation whenever possible. I am conscientious about recycling and compost my kitchen waste. I use the compost in a vegetable garden where I grow a major percentage of my own food without pesticides. I even take advantage of rainwater for irrigation. Around fifty percent of most household energy usage is due to heating and cooling. The combustion process involved in a gas furnace produces a great deal of greenhouse gases. I was unwilling to pollute the environment for the sake of temperature control. Despite the larger investment, I chose a geothermal heat pump for my home. It was very expensive to complete the excavation and install the underground loop system. However, this network of pipes draws from the consistent underground temperature, making use of the free and renewable energy provided by the sun. The geothermal system absorbs this heat energy, compresses it to a higher temperature and pumps it into the house. When the weather warms up, the heat pump pulls heat out of the house and transfers it into the ground. This process achieves nearly a 400% efficiency rating. The geothermal heat pump actually creates four times as much energy as it needs to run the equipment. Because it doesn’t burn fossil fuels to generate heat, there are no greenhouse gases. The Environmental Protection Agency considers geothermal heating and cooling as the most environmentally friendly means of temperature control on the current market.