New Data on Natural Gas is a Problem; Geothermal is the Solution
Brian Clark Howard (National Geographic) and I shared a dialogue* from an article wherein a commenter said that switching from a gas furnace to geothermal heating is increasing the burning of fossil fuels, because the power plant producing the electrical power is probably burning coal, natural gas or other fossil fuels. The argument seems valid until you understand what we call the “Negatherm Factor” (From this article in Green Builder)
Now, new Harvard data cited in this article by Bill McKibben, which comes on the heels of other aerial surveys showing big methane leakage, suggests that our new natural-gas (NG) infrastructure has been bleeding methane into the atmosphere in record quantities. And molecule for molecule, this unburned methane is much, much more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide. Please read the article.
“Negatherm” is a term that was coined to refer to energy that would or could have been used from fossil fuel consumption, but was never used. “Nega”, root of “negative”, meaning unused, and “Therm” a unit of energy equal to 100,000 BTU’s, usually measures the combustion of fossil fuels for heating a home or business. When heating from an appliance using electricity, we use “kilo-watt-hours” (kWh). Electricity comes from many different fuel sources including hydroelectric, solar, wind, geothermal, nuclear, natural gas, coal, and diesel to name a few. We are certainly seeing an increase in the renewable sources, the first four in particular.
The alternative to burning fuels such as NG or “combustion-heating” is electric power. Electric-powered geothermal heat pumps (GHPs) economically eliminate combustion heating. Consider the increasingly renewables-powered electrical grid and we find that the sources are increasingly solar, wind, and other renewable energy sources. Electricity provides “Economic-Immunity” from wild fluctuations to which other fuels sources are subjected.
Geothermal heating and cooling is clearly the only reasonable answer to heating and cooling our buildings, and that’s why geothermal is well on its way to becoming the main source of heating and cooling in the US and the world.
Share with your legislators what you know about Natural Gas. It’s time for all of us to get involved.
Special Thanks to PixyJackPress and Donal Blaise Lloyd for use of illustrations from the book, Geo Power.
*Cited in our first geothermal book, Geothermal HVAC, Green Heating and Cooling (McGraw-Hill Professional, 2010, p16),
Eeco Solutions
8yHi guys, nothing personal but Geothermal is not the way to go. Extremely expensive, high maintenance and week performance, and truly and waste of time and money. Geothermal is a fad riding on the big green movement for many years now. Unless you live in Iceland where there is volcanic geothermal venting it’s basically a waste of time and money. If a structure is built properly, meaning well sealed building envelope with no thermal breaks, Well insulated basically twice the minimum building code standard, and supply a good mechanical system to control moisture i.e.: HRV or ERV, the dwelling will use 85 to 90% less energy than a standard stick frame house. The air intake for the ERV or HRV can be buried around the house with the weeping tile system to utilize the geothermal tempering of the fresh incoming air. (Earth tube). All this at a fraction of the cost of your geothermal systems. The only reason these Geo systems are still around is good marketing and that many people just don’t know
President at Clover Corporation HVAC Equipment
8yOh how the wool can be pulled over the eyes. Interesting article, but flawed. Un-burnt natural gas? Really? To do a true comparison about efficiency one needs to look at life cycle and SOURCE BTU! We all know that to produce 1 kilowatt at the house or commercial facility it takes 33-50% more at the plant due to line loss etc...so when consuming electricity, you need to look at the source. The article shifts the true conversation that needs to be had to Un-burnt NG. While power plants are getting more efficient (by using NG) and replacing coal, and oil we are producing much less waste, but by using NG at the power plant in stead of at the meter we are consuming 40% of our Nat. Resources. Are multiple renewables positive, without a doubt, however the costs (including lifecycle) need to be part of that discussion, as well as availability. Sun and wind are not 100% (24/7)and so the need to have fossil fuels are needed to meet demand so do we build two plants (twice the cost). What's practical and reasonable. Now to flaws.. "But natural gas is for combustion heating, and does not provide cooling"... Really do some home work natural gas cools and was the FIRST COOLING (refrigeration) build, and there highly efficient GEO-THERMAL in fact the highest efficient GEO-thermal that operates on Natural gas as well as natural gas engine drive chillers and natural gas absorption units too. Flaw 2.... "Electricity is not subject to the supply and demand "commodity like" fluctuations of any one individual fuel source." You can't be serious can you? Read any of the New England articles.... Electricity is fluctuating due to Natural gas cost Etcto.... We just added 1 Trillion dollars to the cost of power in New England that has absolutely nothing to do with the fuel source. Look up Foward capacity market. The Foward capacity auction # 8 of ISO New England has cause the wholesale price for the year 2017-2018 to more than quadruple. We haven't burnt a single BTU. But we need to have those power plants standing by for when the demand hits (Or the wind stops and the sun doesn't shine) J/K. What's the largest demand yup you guessed it summer time. Why? Could it be cooling? Electric cooling? Hmmm ok post is getting way too long so I'll reserve the rest of the flaws for later, but really here's a thought to ponder..... Gas is it renewable?
Technical Director
8yGood article and interesting information. Even if your a Natural Gas fan, you should like the idea of conserving the fossil fuels today for better uses than burning it directly in buildings to heat them. We don't really need to use a 2000 + degree flame to warm our buildings up to 70 degree's. Heat pump technology, especially water source heat pumps are the logical choice for space heating and conditioning.
Founder of "sewage - energy" Germany and China ! thermal Energy from sewers and seawater
8yGeothermal energy plus wastewater energy in the warm soil arround the sewers tops the geothermal energy!