The ground temperature a few meters below the surface is fairly constant throughout the year, and...

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Physics

The ground temperature a few meters below the surface is fairlyconstant throughout the year, and is near the average value of theair temperature. In areas in which the air temperature drops verylow in the winter, the exterior unit of a heat pump designed forheating is sometimes buried underground in order to use the earthas a thermal reservoir. Why is it worthwhile to bury the heatexchanger, even if the underground unit costs more to purchase andinstall than one above ground?

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A geothermal heat pump or ground source heat pump GSHP is a central heating andor cooling system that transfers heat to or from the ground It uses the earth all the time without any intermittency as a heat source in the winter or a heat sink in the summer This design takes advantage of the moderate temperatures in the ground to boost efficiency and reduce the operational costs of heating and cooling systems and may be combined with solar heating to form a geosolar system with even greater efficiency They are also known by other names including geoexchange earthcoupled earth energysystems The engineering and scientific communities prefer the terms geoexchange or ground See Answer

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