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From the article: Traditional geothermal wells target rare hydrothermal resources Florida geothermal systems pull cool water from the aquifer, use it for A/C a
by WarOnPrivacy 5y ago
From the article: Traditional geothermal wells target rare hydrothermal resources
Florida geothermal systems pull cool water from the aquifer, use it for A/C and return it via a 2nd well. They're about the only wells that water management districts will rubberstamp.
Geothermal cooling (in FL) becomes cost efficient above 15k-20k sq ft (based on my 2010s exp). That led me to an idea that neighborhoods could be cooled by small geothermal utilities. I wonder about increased heat energy down the line but I've seen a doz+ chillers work efficiently, from one 4" well. On a larger scale, downstream heat buildup might be mitigated via a more distributed water system.
- goda90 5y agoI'm reminded of this video talking about cooling the London Underground. Since it's running through clay, it's very well insulated and the ground around it is warming year over year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQo6_GkITe0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQo6_GkITe0
- Scoundreller 5y agoWhat I always find dumb is when I see a swimming pool and an air conditioner without the two being one system. Do Floridians at least install heat-pump pool heater systems indoors so the cold goes indoors?
- WarOnPrivacy 5y agoI've only seen winter water heating in geothermally cooled homes.
- beerandt 5y agoSwimming pool temperatures in the south easily get over 85, and sometimes 90 degrees in the summer. We always bought big blocks of ice to throw in the pool in the summer to cool it off.
- cmrdporcupine 5y agoI looked into this here, and couldn't find a company to do a heat exchanger hookup for my pool, but also... at least here in the great lakes area, when you want to heat your pool the most is the time when your AC isn't really running (spring / fall), and you don't care about heating your pool as much when the AC is blasting. So while the pool may offer some efficiency gains to the AC, the waste heat from the AC doesn't help much with the pool.
- energ8 5y agoIt'd be somewhat custom, but there is a commercial heat exchanger (https://www.hotspotenergy.com/pool-heater/ https://www.hotspotenergy.com/pool-heater/) that an HVAC tech should be able to install
- kragen 5y agoThis is totally irrelevant to anything in the article, except in the sense that both pertain to thermal energy and the earth. They have nothing else in common. You can't run a factory, a computer, or a car off a ground-source heat pump, because heat pumps consume energy; they don't produce it. A seasonal thermal store like what you're talking about is only slightly less irrelevant, because while in theory it could be an energy source, the energy available is orders of magnitude too small.