[Andy from Chapel Hill]

Not to be too picky, but yes, ground source heat pumps DO extract heat from the ground in the winter and then put it back into the ground in the summer. The phase change of the working fluid is a way of storing more energy in the transaction, but heating and cooling can be obtained without a phase change in certain systems.

See the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association at http://www.igshpa.okstate.edu/
for more details and some good diagrams.

And, in tech-speak, there really is not any such thing as “cold”. Everything is heat. “Cold” is just less thermal energy than “hot” when compared to absolute zero.

BS in Mechanical Engineering, 1979
Thermodynamics/Energy concentration
NC State University
Moo.

[plinyelder]

Andy from Chapel Hill

All this talk about ground source heat pumps?

My outside unit sits on a slab while the rest is in my outside utility room?
Do I have one of those ground source pumps?

Thanks