English 421Y: Technical Writing Online

This document summarizes the information found at http://www.gshp.org.uk/index.htm. This is the website for the Ground Source Heat Pump Association. One of their principle aims is to represent the Ground Source Heating and Cooling Industry. The information found on this site will more than likely be accurate, but we must pay attention to any biases that we come across. We want to include much of the same information, but leave the reader completely open to make their own decision.

For my second source, I wanted to find something that had a little more to do with prices and costs. After looking through the site, I found it not only had general information and a FAQ page on heat pumps, but it also had what appeared to be a white paper about the design and installation of closed loop, ground source heat pump. Since our primary audience is the contractors installing these systems, this source really hits the nail on the head.

The paper lays out some design issues including size, pipe material, and loop depth. These are all things a contractor would be interested in if he was to install such a system. It even goes into some detail about electrical problems with different phase voltages, along with a few ways to combat this. It also provided a small section on CO2 emissions of heat pumps compared with other energy providers. And maybe the most important thing it provides is information on the capital and running cost of different systems. The bottom line is no matter how great something is, it always come back to how much it costs. The problem I see with analyzing the cost for this project is that it will depend greatly on the contractor installing the system and the size.