NYT: With Energy in Focus, Heat Pumps Win Fans

[bananas]

I'm really just posting this for the photograph.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/14/business/smallbusiness/14sbiz.html?em

With Energy in Focus, Heat Pumps Win Fans

Gerard Maloney works to install a heat pump system in a home in North Bend, Wash. By tapping geothermal warmth, heat pumps can save homeowners and businesses on heating bills.

By LIZ GALST
Published: August 13, 2008

The business for ground-source heat pumps is so hot that when some people driving in and around Seattle see Gerard Maloney’s EarthHeat van, with the company’s phone number on the side, they call from their cellphones. “Really, we have people doing this,” Mr. Maloney said.

Like other energy alternatives, ground-source heat pumps have won new admirers as energy costs have skyrocketed.

The pumps, also called geothermal heat pumps, use the relatively constant temperature just below the earth’s surface — six feet below, in many cases — to draw warm air into a building in winter and remove warm air in summer. Advocates say the systems can save building owners 25 percent to 65 percent on energy costs while reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

Around the nation, owners of the small businesses that constitute most of the $2.5 billion ground-source heat pump industry report that demand for their systems and services has surged.

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[madokie]

1. We have an unused water well that we plan to utilize in this way

hopefully it will be next summers project