I'm off later this week to my sister-in-law's wedding in Iceland. Is she Icelandic? No, she's from Salford. I guess she just likes Iceland. In Iceland, 45% of their energy is from geothermal sources, all those geysers and volcanoes.
In Reykjavik, for example (population 145,000), hot water is piped in from 25 kilometers away, and residents use it for heating and for hot tap water.
In Coventry, we have one of the UK leaders in geothermal heating technology, Geothermal International. Their systems help heat and cool schools, as well as Gloucestershire Police HQ.
Four to six feet below the earth's surface, temperatures remain relatively constant year-round. A geothermal system, which typically consists of an indoor unit and a buried earth loop, capitalizes on these constant temperatures to provide "free" energy. In winter, fluid circulating through the system's earth loop absorbs stored heat and carries it indoors. The indoor unit compresses the heat to a higher temperature and distributes it throughout the building. In summer, the system reverses, pulling heat from the building, carrying it through the earth loop and depositing it in the cooler earth.
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