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FACT: Geothermal systems provide the most efficient, comfortable and environmentally friendly method of heating & cooling.

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Gifographic: Geothermal Savings, How Geothermal Works and Environmental Impact

If you are looking for an interesting, pictorial way to describe or understand geothermal and it’s benefits, then we have a great new tool for you.

This new ‘gifographic’ is an animated image that illustrates how geothermal energy works and it’s big benefits. Substantial savings on your monthly utility bills and decreased energy use that lessens your impact on the environment are two of geothermal’s many advantages over traditional heating and cooling.

How Geothermal Works and Geothermal Savings

As the image shows, geothermal uses the ground’s energy derived from the sun to heat and cool your home. Unlike outdoor air temperatures, the ground remains a consistent temperature all year long.

What does this mean? When it’s summer and you want to cool your home, traditional air conditioning systems move heat from inside your home to outside. It is tough on your air conditioner to move heat into the already hot outdoor air (it could be 90 – 105 °F outside), and it takes a lot of energy for your traditional cooling system to do this as the hot outdoor air is not very accepting of more heat.

By comparison, geothermal systems move heat from your home into the much cooler earth (usually around 52 °F), which is much more accepting of heat. Because moving heat with geothermal is much easier, it uses less energy, which means your home cooling bills are lower.

But as you may know, heating your home during cold weather is even more expensive, as the temperature differential is even greater in cold weather (can be -15 to 30 °F outside) and home heating requires traditional heating systems (aside from standard heat pumps) to burn fuel to generate heat.

For heating your home with geothermal, the process is reversed and the geothermal heat pump system moves heat from the ground (still 52 °F), which is heated up more by the heat pump and then blown into your home.

Thus, you can save even more on your heating bills using geothermal. Use the table below to see how much you could save with geothermal compared to the system you currently use.

How much can geothermal save you on YOUR monthly heating and cooling bills? Use our easy geothermal calculator:

Geothermal Means Eco-Friendly, Sustainable Homes

As you saw in the gifographic, the environmental benefits of geothermal are impressive. In addition, geothermal helps reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses, generate clean energy and help provide water heating.

Because geothermal systems are so good for the environment, the U.S. government has federal tax incentives in place to make geothermal even more popular. For more information, visit our geothermal energy incentives page.