GEOTHERMAL HEAT PUMPS THE “PLAYBOOK” Jack DiEnna Executive Director The Geothermal National & International Initiative (GEO-NII)

EVEN THOUGHT WE ARE ALL COMPETITORS WE SHOULD ALL BE ON THE SAME “ TEAM” AND AS A “TEAM” WE SHOULD HAVE A “ PLAYBOOK”Speaking from it, Quoting it.

HOUSEKEEPING What do we call it… Geothermal, Ground Source, GeoExchange. The feds call it geothermal heat pumps. They are ground loops, boreholes not WELLS (unless you are doing an open system)

QUESTION HOW OLD IS GEOTHERMAL HEAT PUMP TECHNOLOGY. Answer: It is a 60 year old technology.

FACT GHP’s were first written up in the October 25 th 1948 issue of Life magazine. In 1954, 3 professors from the University of Wisconsin, determined that a cubic foot of “ordinary” soil has a heat capacity of 40 btu’s (when cooled 1 degree F) and that the ground was a heat source that was present everywhere.

QUESTION???? What % of Primary Energy does the DOE state that building Lighting, appliances, space conditioning and water heating account for………

ANSWER… 36% And 40% of the total energy used in those buildings is for space conditioning and water heating. This is much more than the total energy used in the transportation Industry.. So then why are we talking about CARS!!!!

The “ENERGY UNDER OUR FEET” A four ton system extracts an equivalent of 8.94 Kilowatts of energy per hour from the ground. (NREL) That equates to 30,510 BTUs being extracted every hour, 24 / 7, 365 days a year. (one Kilowatt equals 3413 BTUs)

Question.. Are GHP’s RENEWABLE? Answer: According to the latest description by DOE, “a Geothermal heat pump is a highly efficient RENEWABLE energy technology”.

QUESTION. How much can I SAVE!!!! Answer…Savings from 10% to 40% have been achieved with GHP technology. TRY NOT TO OVER PROMISE.

Question? What is the PAYBACK??? Answer.. 2 years, 4 years, immediate ?? What would you say.

One of the problems of our industry is that we continually talk about PRICE, We have to change that to……. VALUE.

Geothermal Heat Pumps deliver “Triple E” Solutions Energy Independence & Security Environmental Stability Economic Prosperity

Question: How much energy is saved per ton of capacity installed. Answer. According to a study done by NREL, there is a reduction of.55 to.88 Kw reduced per ton of installed capacity.

QUESTION: What is the % of Green house gas emissions do GHPs reduce according to the EPA. ANSWER …….. 40%

Question: How many JOBS does this technology account for??? Answer: For every Commercial project there are 22 job classifications either created or retained. (12 manufacturing, 10 field)

Avoided Power

The One Million Units: Has an annual savings of over 8 Billion kWh and a reduction of electric demand by over 2.6 million Kw.

The Road to 30% With 30% of the (residential & commercial) HVAC market there would be a savings of 177,239,835 kWh and a demand reduction of 36,564,000 kW or 36,564 mW. This would increase dramatically if we included the institutional market.

This would mean a carbon would be reduced by 35,486,053 metric tons and CO2 would be reduced by 130,115,529 metric tons. This is the equivalence of removing approximately 29 million cars off the road or planting over 8 billion trees.

AND It would mean the creation or retention of over 5 MILLION jobs. (Jobs may or may not be mutually exclusive. Individual jobs may be performed by the same individual in a particular classification or position.)

What should we do. Demand that everyone be certified. That standards be adopted to protect the integrity of the technology. We need to start capturing the metrics, the when, where, how and expectations of projects.

In a recent report by EurObserv’ER there have been over 1 million installations in the European Union In fact, in January of this year, Mimer Energy signed a joint venture with West Warwick, RI to provide GHPs to all the business and municipal buildings in the Center of Town.

REMEMBER Geothermal Heat Pumps go beyond being a “GREEN” Technology… They are a “GOLD” technology….

If you have any questions or need further information please contact me at or me at