Monday, November 19, 2007

Geothermal Air-Conditioner


A local initiative by an Estonian inventor, Heiki Jüris, invented the Geothermal Air-Conditioner. This device is in use and working. Dr. V. Viljasoo of Estonian University of Life Sciences is collaborating with Mr. Jüris on the testing of the device.

The principle is simple. Two "boxes" are built under, or in extension of the foundation of the house and connected with several sloped tubes. The device is then covered with earth, or built upon. In principle the circulation of the air through a heat pump (much like normal ground heating using a liquid to absorb the heat) the air in this device obtain the ground temperature (around 7 degrees), and returning to normal atmospheric electrostatic air and humidity before pumping it back into the house.

The Geothermal Air-Conditioner seems to be a cheap way to create a healthy air conditioning and heat for the house. It potentially takes up a less space than normal ground heating (if placed under the house), and the space can still be used for storage to some extent. The backside is that is best to include in the initial building phase (though it can be added later as well) and that it is still in (final) experimental phase. The device requires a little manual cleaning every year.

Now, this is not all advertising. The reason for entering this into my blog is that Mr. Jüris seems to be fitting my archetype of a local "alchemist". From what I am told he is a pleasant and modest person who does not do much advertise himself and his invention. He is not a scientist per se I understand (but collaborate with local ones). The principle of the device is simple, clever and cheap (mainly if put into building of a house foundation). Mr. Jüris is one of many brilliant inventors with better solutions to status quo, but chance is that his invention will suffer the same fate as most other of our solutions: little or no impact. The reason? Well, if you read about the conference in the last blog entry you might find one answer. If the focus of government, and thus the scientists (funding is needed by the governments), is on heating with biofules or wood/plant materials ("renewable energy source") then that is what people will use in the future. If the perspective is small in the leadership, and the small man (Mr. Jüris) is not raising massive public awareness on his own, I would sadly predict his invention to become a another future note in the patent office.

Interview with inventor (Estonian)

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good post.

Theron Jay Egg said...

There has never been a bettter time to invest in Egg geothermal heating and cooling HVAC technology. Tax credits of 30% are now in effect, and 100% may be written off against propety tax. HVAC technology has improved these sysems to 30 EER. www.geothermalexperts.net

Manhattan Air Conditioners AC Units said...

I like this technology for houses, its really a new or unique idea, I never heard about geothermal air conditioners.

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Sebastian said...

Relying on thermal energy that originates from Mother Earth, geothermal air conditioning and heating systems do require a small amount of electrical power to concentrate and circulate heat and cool air through the home. But because of low overall operating costs, these amounts are negligible in comparison to conventional heating and cooling systems. And one of the benefits of geothermal systems includes replacing the need for or entirely replacing traditional water heaters and providing hot water very inexpensively.

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