Domestic heating can be provided through natural underground resources utilising simple heating pumps. This can be done with the use of Geothermal heating, that in the simplest terms, is when heat that is actually contained in the ground is used to supply heating for any purpose.

Primitive humanity may have initially put to use geothermal heating from hot springs for cooking and other purposes, although they almost certainly had a totally different term for it. The heat is produced from the radioactive decay associated with mineral deposits, volcanic activity as well as from heat from the sun soaked up at the surface of the globe. The temperature of geothermal heat will be the highest in areas where volcanic activity increases near to the earth's surface. Mainly because of recent developments in heating pump capabilities, this specific source of heating is today able to be tapped into and set to use somewhat economically in a variety of domestic and industrial situations. This is why it has become a rapidly growing market in the us as well as the UK.

In very simple language, a heating pump is a system that shifts air from one area to another space by using an electric motor. A reverse cycle air conditioning system which can transfer cold or heated air in to or from a house, is one sort of heating pump. Geothermal heating pumps stick to the same fundamental principal, but they are in addition able to acquire the heat from subterranean water or the ground and then move it into the house during winter months, or remove heat from inside the home and transfer it to the underground water or ground, therefore cooling down the house throughout the warmer summertime.

In theory, heat can in fact be moved from any resource, regardless of how cold it is, however, warmer sources enable a greater proficiency. Bearing this in mind, geothermal heating pumps can supply living space heating even in areas where there are no large high temperature geothermal heat resources. For this, a ground-source heating pump makes use of the heat underground in the earth or groundwater as a source of heat. This kind of heating pump takes advantage of the constant temperature that is maintained underground, instead of the temperature variations that take place in the air above ground. Heating pumps of this kind in comparison with air-source heating pumps, which pull heat from the cold outside air and changes it, prove to be much more effectual.

There are a number ways to use inexpensive geothermal heating. More than half of the direct geothermal heating put to use at present is being put to use for living space heating in houses, office buildings along with other business establishments. 33 % is now being put to use for spas, and the rest is getting used by industrial processes and farming applications. Apparently, the town of Reykjavik in Iceland smartly makes use of these types of heating pumps to push heated water through pipes which snake beneath streets. They do this as a way to melt the snow and ice.

Although geothermal heating pumps do are more expensive with regard to setting up in most situations, as technological know-how progresses these prices will almost certainly be lowered. None the less, the general efficiency plus ecological friendliness they offer, promptly offsets the original installation price and therefore heating pumps of this kind are quickly becoming the heating system selected in most countries and will continue to be widely used as time goes on.