To celebrate Thanksgiving here in the USA we re-publish this article from Global Geothermal News in 2012:
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| (Courtesy Wikipedia Commons) |
A University of Missouri (MU) researcher is testing whether geothermal heating systems can be used to reduce utility costs for turkey farmers -- a move that eventually could lower the price of Thanksgiving dinners.
Underground heat pipes have been installed at a Cooper County test farm this summer. It’s the first application of a geothermal energy system in a commercial livestock operation, said Yun-sheng Xu, an associate research professor in MU’s College of Engineering.
Geothermal systems use the soil’s constant temperature of 55 degrees to 65 degrees to regulate the temperature of water that flows through buried tubing. The water transfers the ground’s heat into the building in the winter.
Xu’s design was cheaper to install than traditional geothermal units because the pipes were buried horizontally. Traditional geothermal systems that rely on tubes to be laid vertically require deeper -- and more expensive -- digging.
Underground heat pipes have been installed at a Cooper County test farm this summer. It’s the first application of a geothermal energy system in a commercial livestock operation, said Yun-sheng Xu, an associate research professor in MU’s College of Engineering.
Geothermal systems use the soil’s constant temperature of 55 degrees to 65 degrees to regulate the temperature of water that flows through buried tubing. The water transfers the ground’s heat into the building in the winter.
Xu’s design was cheaper to install than traditional geothermal units because the pipes were buried horizontally. Traditional geothermal systems that rely on tubes to be laid vertically require deeper -- and more expensive -- digging.
