Home > > Wind generators news > > Avenir Energie's Geopack pumps up the energy
Geopack, the latest geothermal heating system from Avenir Energie, is on show at Frankfurt¡¯s ISH Trade Fair from 15 to 19 March 2005. Designed to meet all the heating needs of a typical domestic house or similar building, Geopack captures the free and unlimited energy that naturally exists in the soil, and converts it to a useable form via a heat-pump generator. The hot water produced is used in a traditional water based under-floor or radiator based system to provide perfect comfort at around a quarter of the cost of other typical central heating systems.
Loops of small diameter polyethylene-coated copper tube are buried between 50cm and 60cm below the surface of the garden of the house to form a captor through which refrigerant fluid is pumped, typically R407c blend. A scroll compressor and a stainless steel plate heat exchanger within the generator unit complete the circuit to transfer the energy captured from the soil into the house.
The energy taken from the soil is quickly and continually replaced by sunlight, wind and rainfall, but at the same time the captor is protected from sudden ambient temperature changes. The use of this free energy enables a COP (coefficient of performance) of between 3.9 and 5.1, which means that for every kW of electrical energy consumed to operate the generator, the system produces between 3.9 and 5.1 kW of energy to heat the building.
In order to save precious and expensive space within the house itself, the generator unit is designed to be very compact, and most importantly, to be installed outdoors. Here, it can be mounted close to an outside wall, or lost in amongst the plants and bushes, which incidentally are unaffected by what is going on beneath them. Only a small control panel, together with the water pump and connection components are installed inside the house, offering very practical space benefits in garages or utility rooms, the normal hiding place of traditional heat-pump based heating systems.
Geopack is supplied fully assembled and charged with refrigerant fluid at the factory, which means that installation and commissioning is fast, and can be undertaken with normal heating system tools. It is not normally necessary for the installer to handle refrigerant fluid.
The unit itself produces no pollutants, is effectively silent while running and, with its high COP, the Geopack is proving to be a very practical and environmentally friendly solution to domestic heating requirements.
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