Talk:Geothermal heating

Redundancy and article purpose
This subject is already covered in geothermal heat pump. I think that geothermal heating should be changed to an article about using relatively hot areas for heating rather than just using the Earth as a thermal mass for a heat pump system. This is what I think of when I hear "geothermal heating". Probably the most common way to use geothermal heating is through district heating systems. They are used to heat homes in Iceland. -- Kjkolb 12:14, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

David Bangs

I added an introductory paragraph to generalize the article to cover multiple types of Geothermal Heating. --David Bangs, 5/29/2007

I agree with Bangs that the article should cover all forms of geothermal heating as its title implies. I don't think preference should be given to one form over another even at the sake of Wiki redundancy. However, I noted that the transition between ground pumps and hot dry rock was confusing. The original wording made it seem that 90% of the world was unable to use any form of geo-heating without EGS technology. --Ma Long6676 (talk) 15:49, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

I looked over the other geothermal Wikis and concluded that this page should probably be a general hub of geothermal technologies. Each geothermal heating usage (i.e. pumps, EGS, district heating) already has its own page. This would be a good place to put a small description of each so that people can find a comprehensive listing of geothermal technologies without going into too much detail. Also, the geothermal power page is fairly comprehensive so I think it is worthwhile to primarily stick to heating uses only.

--Ma Long6676 (talk) 17:16, 11 December 2008 (UTC)


 * I agree with making this a hub of geothermal technology. Some systems that use the Earth for thermal mass do not have a heat pump, and so would not fit in the geothermal heat pump article. See for example Drake Landing. --Yannick (talk) 23:48, 19 March 2009 (UTC)


 * I've had second thoughts. After further reading, geothermal electric generation schemes such as EGS don't belong under the heading of geothermal heating. So now I think that geothermal power should be the central hub of geothermal technology, which would include direct-use geothermal heating, which in turn would include geothermal heat pumps, earth tubes, downhole heat exchangers, Drake Landing, etc. So I propose to delete EGS from this article, and focus on direct-use technologies here.--Yannick (talk) 05:24, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

Incorrect Explanation
The claim that Geothermal Heat Pumps utilize the higher temperatures available below the surface is completely incorrect. The pipes may be buried just a foot or so down and the earth is useful for heat conductivity and stability. A given heat pump can both cool or heat a house in any location by acting as a refrigerator or reverse refrigerator.

The description of Heat Pump action here is almost entirely incorrect.

I noticed another issue. The article states, "As a result, the heat is pumped over a smaller temperature difference with a geothermal heat pump and this leads to higher efficiency and lower energy use.[8]" This statement is counter intuitive. Heat transfer principles state a higher temperature difference results in higher efficiency or lower energy use. If this statement is correct, it is misleading and requires rewording or additional explanation. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.33.69.70 (talk) 14:11, 8 October 2008 (UTC)

Worldwide underground temperatures?
"Normally the earth temperature is around 12.8oC (or 55 °F) at depths of 10 ft." Worldwide? Even near the equator? Is there a map of global underground temperatures? Glueball 18:27, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

55degF is what the subsurface ground temperature is at the approximate latitude of Delaware, it certainly is not the same worldwide. And yes there are some rather detailed isothermal maps showing the ground temperatures for various locales across the U.S. --Garyonthenet 05:07, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

Underground temperatures are uniform globally after a certain depth, first cooling to 53 degrees at about 50 feet deep and then quickly rising about a degree per foot's depth. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cat'sglove (talk • contribs) 00:06, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

Staufen
The Reference is incorrect. There was no subdidence but only uplift. --78.94.106.74 (talk) 09:06, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

links
here are some links that i think should be added to this page. I'm new to the editing process on Wikipedia, so if someone could help me out with getting them approved, i'd appreciate it. thanks!

http://www.geoexchange.org http://www.geothermal.org/ http://www.earthsource-energy.com/

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 09:52, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Source of heat
The header says that the heat comes from radio active decay of minerals. To my limited understanding, this sounds ridiculous. The centre of the earth is molten rock which has not cooled down since the universe was created in the Big Bang. The sae kind of molten rock that appears in volcanic erruptions. The outside crust of the earth has merely cooled to the point we are at today but the rock strata a little way down is much hotter. The fluid nature of the hot rock and the "cracks" in the cooled shell are the source of earthquakes. Surely THIS is the source of the heat and not the radio active decay of minerals! Does anyone object to me changing this?--Hauskalainen (talk) 22:59, 8 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I object. Radioactive decay of minerals currently produces 30 TW, or about 3/4 of the heat that flows up to the surface. Ref. --Yannick (talk) 02:20, 13 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Besides, the information was already supported by a proper citation.--Yannick (talk) 02:20, 13 May 2009 (UTC)

NPOV Problem
The section headed Economics reads like cheerleading for sustainable energy. The very small percetnage of American homeowners who have adopted geothermal have done so out of social concience, not for economic reasons.

The very high installation cost of these systems means that it requires 15-20 years of savings to equal the initial cost. It would be much more economical to invest those funds in securities.

A proper economics discussion would compare installation cost with savings, and take into acct the time value of money. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.163.115.114 (talk) 01:14, 11 April 2011 (UTC)

Geothermal radiation
The concept of Harvesting renewable energy from Earth's mid-infrared emissions merits inclusion, doesn't it? Paradoctor (talk) 16:04, 25 December 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
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External links modified (January 2018)
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Linking to German
This article is wrongly linked to the the German article Wärmepumpenheizung. But that is an article dedicated not to geothermal heating but to heating with heat pumps. And article to this topic is still missing in en.wikipedia. 2001:9E8:244:6500:7C0B:9A6B:7F30:D9E0 (talk) 04:38, 25 March 2023 (UTC)