Ground Source Heat Pump

A ground source heat pump, also called a geothermal heat pump, is a heating and cooling system that uses a heat pump to move thermal energy between a building and the ground, taking advantage of underground temperatures that stay relatively stable through the year. Because it moves heat rather than generating it directly, the system can deliver three to six units of heat for every unit of electricity it consumes, a net efficiency well above a conventional electric heater. Robert C. Webber built the first direct exchange ground source heat pump in the late 1940s, and the first successful commercial installation followed at the Commonwealth Building in Portland, Oregon, in 1948; the technology spread further after the 1973 oil crisis, especially in Sweden. By 2021, heat pumps made up about 10 percent of global heating equipment sales. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/