In the vastness of the post-Soviet space, geothermal heating of houses is still not very much in demand. But in Europe and North America, the installations have been successfully operating for 30 years, because the price of geothermal heating at home is only the cost of equipment.
How geothermal heating works
The principle of operation of geothermal heating of houses is similar to the principle of operation of a refrigerator. The main operating unit of the system is a heat pump, which is mounted on both circuits. The internal one is a huge heat exchanger located under water or in the soil. It is filled with water or an anti-freeze liquid. The heat transfer medium takes the ambient temperature and carries it to the heat pump. Here the heat "accumulates" and then goes to the internal circuit (radiators in the room). As you can see, the principle of geothermal heating at home is quite simple.
So, all the main work goes to the geothermal pump. This appliance is smaller than a refrigerator. Unfortunately, despite the undoubted benefits of geothermal heating at home, the installation of the system is in the first place in terms of cost. Equipment for geothermal heating of a country house is not cheap in itself, and work on laying a heat exchanger is added to it.
DIY geothermal heating
It is really possible to equip a geothermal heating system at home with your own hands. But it is very time consuming. First of all, these are very voluminous earthworks. Why they are needed, see below. There are two options for the location of the heat exchanger: vertical and horizontal. The second is used more often. Pipes must be buried deeper than the ground freezes at your latitude.
The area occupied by the heat exchanger should be approximately 2.5 times the area of the building. In this case, the trees should be at least one and a half meters. The cost of geothermal heating at home can be somewhat reduced by using a vertical heat exchanger.
Vertical heat exchanger - here you cannot do without special drilling equipment, since the depth of wells for pipes should be from 50 to 200 meters. The equipment installed in this way will last at least a hundred years. The scheme is very convenient if the personal plot has already been ennobled.
Heat exchanger in water - this is a very good option for two reasons: the energy of the water is transferred to the heat exchanger faster, increasing the efficiency of work, there is no excavation at all. But, to the pool or pond should be no more than one hundred meters, and the depth of the pond is from 2.5 to 5 meters (below the freezing line), the area of the pond is more than 200 square meters. meters. And also, by laying pipes in a pond, you can significantly reduce the cost of geothermal heating at home.
So, assembling geothermal heating at home with your own hands is almost impossible.
Testimonials
There are not many reviews of our compatriots about geothermal heating at home. There are also negative ones among them. For example, by installing equipment from a very large and serious company specializing in just such work, people do not get any effect. According to some reports, the price of geothermal heating of a house is on average 200 thousand dollars.
Most users who leave reviews about geothermal heating at home agree that it is too expensive and not yet a sufficiently effective heating method.Experts believe that the best effect is provided by geothermal heating of a country house with an area of no more than 150 sq. meters.
