Geothermal energy how does it work for kids

A geothermal system can cool your house during the summer, too! It just works in reverse, absorbing the heat from the air inside your home and moves it back into the earth. A geothermal heater is also very energy-efficient. Almost none of the energy used is wasted, so it helps keep heating bills very low during the winter.

Schools all over the Midwest are using geothermal energy for heating and air conditioning. Geothermal is great for schools because it uses a lot less energy than other types of heating and cooling equipment. We can also use geothermal energy to make electricity. Water or a refrigerant moves through a loop of pipes. When the weather is cold, the water or refrigerant heats up as it travels through the part of the loop that's buried underground.

Once it gets back above ground, the warmed water or refrigerant transfers heat into the building. The water or refrigerant cools down after its heat is transferred. It is pumped back underground where it heats up once more, starting the process again. On a hot day, the system can run in reverse. The water or refrigerant cools the building and then is pumped underground where extra heat is transferred to the ground around the pipes. Cool Facts Looking to the past. People have used geothermal energy for thousands of years.

Ancient Romans, Chinese, and Native American cultures used hot mineral springs for bathing, cooking, and eating. Hot stuff! Buildings in Iceland are heated in this way from the country's many geothermal sites.

Hot water near the surface of Earth can be used directly for heat. Direct-use applications include heating buildings, growing plants in greenhouses, drying crops, heating water at fish farms, and several industrial processes such as pasteurizing milk.

In the winter, the heat pump uses power to remove heat from the heat exchanger and pumps it into the indoor air delivery system. In the summer, the process is reversed, and the heat pump uses power again to move heat from the indoor air into the heat exchanger.

The heat removed from the indoor air during the summer can also be used to provide a free source of hot water. The power to run the heat pump comes from another source. Power plants and thermal applications of geothermal energy are mature technologies, whereas enhanced geothermal systems EGS projects are a new type of application.

In the United States, most geothermal reservoirs of hot water are in the western states, Alaska, and Hawaii. Wells can be drilled into underground reservoirs for the generation of electricity.