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Confused by Heat Pumps? Geothermal? The State of Michigan once provided a 15% tax credit for using the aquifer beneath residential property for home heating and cooling during the Carter era. The system must have been approved by the Monroe County Department of Health and follow common sense State Guidelines.
It is noted per IRS rulings during the Carter administration denied the 40% Federal Geothermal tax credit in Michigan because a geothermal system is not possible in this state. Geothermal energy is found by drilling into hot formations in the Earth's crust and producing or tapping steam to generate electricity or some other use requiring substantial real heat, not a heat pump system.
The IHM system as deployed is closer to Oak Ridge National Laboratory ACES concept. Thus any marketing ploy to call this closed system at the motherhouse geothermal is incorrect and misleading. The system may actually be a ground source or ground storage system. 1
The Geothermal Sales Pitch Heating contractors appear to have used the sister's good will to push their selfish economic mandate by claiming to be able to provide them a geothermal heating system in Michigan. Using words correctly and honestly, this is not possible with only 450 foot deep wells at any location near Monroe Michigan. Some Western States including Alaska do have geothermal resources. What is possible in Monroe County is to use the earth as a heat sink or source in conjunction with water-to-air heat pump system. These units differ from a geothermal heating system in that the earth’s heat cannot be used directly for heating to normal room temperatures of 70 degrees F because the earth heat or well water source heat is 55 degrees F. The lowest ground temperate considered a geothermal source is far higher than Michigan’s well water temperature. However, 55 degree water will readily boil refrigerants at low pressures and substantial amounts of usable heat are obtainable when the refrigerant is mechanically compressed. Some air conditioners are designed to also function as heat pumps by reversing the refrigerant with a four way valve. When you use well water directly or water in close but isolated contact with the earth as is the case with the IHM system you have a ground source heat pump system. Geothermal System Helps Sisters Fulfill Spiritual, Moral Mandate-PDF Download the PDF file from this site 217 KB Download the PDF file (#1) Issue from this site 745KB Both of the two premier issue number one PDF files read more like a sob story than a technical report. It is amusing how the contractor(s) claim to have succeeded in "blowing completed cased bore hole pipe 450 feet out of the ground" with the compressed air used in a drilling process using drilling rigs similar to those used to drill quarry shot holes. The process of "educating the local authorities", presumably the health department by engineers who found drilling in a bountiful aquifer in the thick karst formation using compressed air as a flushing agent “almost impossible” and a "Heroic Effort" must have been a hoot. Geo Outlook Premier Issue (#2) Online PDF Download the PDF file Premier Issue (#2) from this site 105KB All of the above publications appear of little value and are basically sales pitches in the writer’s opinion. Finding information on ground source heat pumps of value to the engineer, technically oriented homeowner or anyone needing genuine engineering help which may have been difficult to obtain and find the sales brochures confusing. Systems using Tetco and Heat Controllers equipment have been known to fail when using Monroe County well water because of the erosive and corrosive nature of the aquifer under most of the county. A source of useful information is: Oregon Institute of Technology (1) Harry Fischer’s annual cycle concept may have been the most publicized Laboratory energy conservation endeavor. A retiree with wide experience in energy engineering, Fischer dropped by the Laboratory in 1974 to tell Samuel Beall, new director of the Energy Division, that he knew how to provide home heating and cooling at half the cost of systems then in use. His annual cycle energy system (ACES) used a heat pump that extracted heat during winter from a large insulated tank of water, changing the water into ice for summer cooling. A working model for the ACES house was built and operated in two months, using funding from ERDA. Fischer met John Gibbons of the University o Tennessee Energy, Environment, and Resources Cente, who was overseeing the university-sponsored construction of experimental houses using solar and conventional heat near Knoxville. Gibbons, a former ORNL physicist who later became director of the Office of Technology Assessment and is now President Bill Clinton’s science adviser, offered university land for construction of two ERDA-funded homes, including one heated and cooled by ACES. Jointly managed by the university, the Laboratory, TVA, and ERDA, the houses were completed in a year. ERDA Director Seamans personally inspected them to highlight the fast response to government demand. As Fischer predicted, the ACES house could be heated and cooled at half the energy costs of conventional systems. However, few ever adopted Fischer’s system, largely because of its high initial cost and potential maintenance problems. Citation:the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Review (Vol. 25, Nos. 3 and 4)
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