English 421Y: Technical Writing Online

Purpose: To better understand the concepts of geothermal technology
Unanswered Questions: None
Source(s): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ajqiPe_9Ko
http://www.geoexchange.org/geothermal/geoexchange-explained/what-is-geoe...

I have heard of geothermal energy before but never really understood what it was or how it worked. I assumed that from its name that it had something to do with receiving energy from the Earth. Although I am eventually going be focusing my research on Vertical loop Geothermal systems, I decided that I would first focus my research on understanding how geothermal works in general and why it is something that someone would want to install. This way I would have a better understanding of the information when I later researched the Vertical loop Geothermal system.

The first result from Google was a YouTube video that gave a very simple summary of how geothermal works. While it was not a very detailed explanation or was it from a very technical source, the video was a good, visual explanation (from a 50,000ft view) to start off my research.

The next site that I visited was the Geothermal Heat Pump Consortium web site. They had a great page entitled “What is Geothermal?” The first part of the page summarizes how geothermal works and what it can be used for. I originally assumed that since it has “thermal” in the name that geothermal could only be used to heat a home. However it can also be used to cool a home as well as provide hot water.

Further down the page are short paragraphs explaining each of the different types of systems. While it was interesting to read and will be useful further along in my research, what was even more interesting was the paragraph on what to look for when considering buying a system. One thing that I felt this page lacked was whether or not installing geothermal systems required any special certifications. It said that you should look for equipment certified by the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute, but nothing about the contractor. I will need to look into this more as our customer (contractors) might need to be certified before installing these systems.

Even though this research didn’t focus specifically on Vertical loop systems, it will prove useful for our white paper. Just as I didn’t know how geothermal worked, our audience will mostly likely need a brief introduction before reading further to find a system that is right for them.

Now that I have a better understanding of how geothermal systems work, I will be refining my future research to focus more specifically on vertical loop systems.