GEOTHERMIE, een (T)EC(HN)OLOGISCH wonder?

Ok, that really is a BOLD statement. What do we mean by this? Well, wonder is not so crazy. Our latest new construction projects La Corbeille and BASILIQ were equipped with this futuristic heating (and cooling) system.

How does it work? 

Holes are drilled in the ground into which heat exchangers are placed. Through the heat exchangers flows a fluid that absorbs heat from the deep ground layers and brings it to the surface to the heat pump.

What is a heat pump?

A heat pump extracts heat from a heat source (via groundwater or heat exchanger) at a certain temperature. The pump releases that heat at a higher temperature to the heating system (the space heating, hot tap water). So the heat pump pumps heat from a low to a high temperature level. To do this, it uses electrical energy. The gain factor or COP (Coefficient of Performance) of a heat pump indicates how much thermal energy it will convert for one unit of electricity consumed. In the case of our projects, we end up with a COP of more than 5! That is 5 units of thermal performance for 1 unit of energy performance. The amount of energy consumed by a heat pump depends on the temperature difference it has to bridge. The higher the temperature of the heat source, the less energy it has to consume and the higher the efficiency of the heat pump will be. If you also install solar panels, then it comes full circle!

Cooling with a heat pump?
If we reverse the operation of a heat pump, we can extract heat from the building and return it to the environment, i.e. the ground. This is called active cooling. By cooling a building, we create a comfortable indoor climate inexpensively. Moreover, we can later recover the heat after we have temporarily stored it in the ground.We speak of natural or passive cooling when we send the cooling medium from the soil only through a heat exchanger. Since we do not use electricity, this form of cooling is even cheaper.

What do you think? Fancy geothermal already?