What is GeoThermal?

GeoThermal uses temperatures found in the earth or below water to cool or heat air and water for buildings. For example, a heat pump can extract heat from underneath the ground to heat a building. In the summer, the pump can be reversed to provide air conditioning by moving hot air out of the building and down into the ground.

It's more efficient to use GeoThermal than it is to use a combustion furnace. That's because it requires less energy to move heat from one place to another than it does to convert one kind of energy into another, which is what a furnace does. Canada uses one-quarter of its total energy consumption on space heating or cooling and water heating or cooling.

There are more than 50,000 GeoThermal installations in Canada that are used for residential, commercial, institutional and industrial applications. GeoThermal is used widely in northern Europe, especially in the Scandinavian countries, which have adopted the technology quickly. GeoThermal is becoming more common in the southern United States where it's used to cool buildings.