Geothermal technology uses the earth's renewable energy, just below the surface, to heat and cool a building and to provide hot water for domestic use. It has been in use for over 30 years, though most of the more than 650,000 installations in North America supply residential homes. The technology is very prevalent in Sweden and is a standard option in Germany, Austria and Switzerland though today it can be found in use in every climate and on every continent in the world.

Before climate change was known, reducing energy costs was the strongest driver of geothermal technology. Today, we understand the negative effects of green house gasses and we know these gasses are produced primarily by burning fossil fuels, whether directly in our furnaces or indirectly to produce electricity.

Advanced technology and increasing populations are depleting our traditionally relied upon global resources faster than they can be regenerated. However, advanced technology is also providing us with the ability to discover and use other global resources previously beyond our reach. The sun is our greatest source of heat and light and convection from the sun creates winds that cool.

The sun's heat travels to the surface of the earth continuously, with approximately 46% of this energy absorbed into the earth's crust while the rest is reflected into the atmosphere. A few feet beneath the surface, the earth's temperature remains fairly constant, winter and summer, ranging from approximately 7ºC in the northern and southern latitudes to 22ºC near the equator. Geothermal technology takes advantage of this constant temperature to provide renewable and extremely efficient heating and cooling. Because it burns no fossil fuels, geothermal technology greatly reduces the production of CO² and all green house gasses.

Geothermal technology has advanced rapidly in the last 5 years, driving down installation costs substantially. The high cost of energy and environmental awareness have created a growing market where more efficient heat exchange equipment and sophisticated computer simulation engineering now produce extremely reliable, economical systems with the highest energy efficiency and with the complexity required to heat and cool large commercial buildings even on dense urban sites.

The earth absorbs heat from the sun and below a depth of 8 feet, the ground retains a constant temperature of approximately 10ºC all year round. (southern Canada and northern US).

Specially designed geothermal pipe, installed vertically or horizontally into the ground in a return loop configuration, circulates water, extracting heat in the winter and shedding heat in the summer.

Geothermal heat pumps installed inside the building, compress heat from the geothermal system and convert it to heat air which is circulated to provide any building structure with heating. In the summer, the heat pumps reverse their process, extracting heat from the air in the building and depositing it into the geothermal system which carries it back into the ground.

Geothermal water pumps and heat pumps require electricity to run however, geothermal systems convert no fossil fuel or electric power to thermal energy making them 400% to 500% more efficient than the highest efficiency natural gas furnace, while creating no CO² or GHG emissions. The actual heat is free and comes from the ground.

Operating costs are typically 40% to 75% less than for conventional HVAC systems and will not be affected by rising fuel prices, such as in the case of natural gas, which has risen over 100% in the past 5 years.

Recent advancements in geothermal design technology are producing sophisticated systems capable of supplying large commercial buildings with 100% of their heating cooling and domestic hot water needs. These systems are clear choices both economically and environmentally.

A professionally designed geothermal system is a reliable source of renewable energy with a life expectancy over 100 years.