[Aussie Dasher]

Now the bloody Queen's gone green!!!!

What's to become of us...?

[Ruth A.]

The Queen is probably doing it for cost efficiency, but the reporter has his own agenda.

I wonder how many years it will be until they tell us how this is damaging the ecosystem.

[GSlob]

"Now the bloody Queen's gone green!!!! What's to become of us...?"
You can do her one better and start photosynthesis. Then you'd turn green both figuratively AND literally. Why, you might even get knighted for your trouble.

[mc6809e]

The Buckingham Palace scheme will cost up to pound stg. 50,000 ($120,000), but is expected to pay for itself in three to seven years. It could then provide free heat energy for a century with almost no maintenance.

WOW! The per year savings will be between $17,000 and $40,000 which means the total bill right now must be enormous.

[WHATNEXT?]

So, it is an underground heat pump system. The weakest link is the compressor. We had to replace our heat pump/compressor every 5-10 years making it a very expensive heating system.

[Shawndell Green]

We have been using heat pumps in Texas for a long time. Of course, since the temperature of the ground is more stable than air, a gournd based system is going to be more efficient, albeit more expensive to install.

[American in Israel]

Wow, the bloody British have invented a new system that has only been in use in American homes for 20 years. At this rate the EU will catch up with America in about 300 or so decades... Using well pump heat sinks is very old technology. A more advanced version pumps water from one well, uses it in a heat exchanger in the cooling system and pours the used water back down another well. Rather than risking contamination of the water table, or saturation of the well with heat or cooling buildup limiting your savings, you return the unwanted thermal load to another well and as the water flows between the two wells it transfers the heat to a much larger area. And as a bonus, you do not need expensive special refrigerant piping and special systems.

But give um another 20 years and they will figure that out too. Bloody brilliant they may be, but sometimes it helps to read a trade mag or two from America.

[sergeantdave]

Just throw the queen and elton down a 3,000 ft mineshaft. The temperature should be a toasty 80 degrees.