Homeowners have become increasingly concerned by the continuous increase in the price of energy. They are seeing their utility bills going up every month often greater than the rate of inflation. With no end coming soon most people are now in search of alternative approaches to help save on their heating costs.

Although on the face of it science fiction there is one method of heating your home that while not free comes pretty close to it. It's known as a ground source heat pump that is only a fancy name for a heat exchanger. The sun's energy by means of heat is constantly making the earth warmer and this heat is stored just like a giant battery a short distance under the ground. A ground source heat pump utilises this heat which can then be used to heat your house.

A trench is dug approximately 1 metre deep and about 200 metres long (the length will vary determined by how large a home you're looking to heat) and into this trench is placed a pipe usually made from plastic. The trench is then back filled with Earth and left buried underground. Because the temperature from the ground at this depth is generally 12 to 14°C more than the surface temperature if water is pumped around this pipe heat from the ground will transfer into it thereby heating the water up.

This water will not be hot enough to operate a central heating system however , if the pipe is then run into a system which contains a compressed refrigerant the water temperature can be brought up to 40° Celsius or higher. This is then suitable to be run through an underfloor network of pipes to help keep the property warm. This isn't normally hot enough for most people but it may be easily supplemented with a small traditional gas or oil boiler which will provide domestic hot water for showers or a bath.

Even though some energy needs to be put into the system mostly to power a pump that circulates the cold water around the pipeworl how much energy outputted in the form of heat is more than the energy going in. Commonly for every unit of energy you put in you can draw out to to three times the total amount making this one of the most efficient heating systems you can get today and almost to good to be true!

Although a fantastic system it does have a couple of drawbacks. Firstly because of the necessity to dig a trench and also to install pipework under the floor it means it's only really ideal for a brand new house in which the pipework may be laid at the same time as the foundations. Secondly the installation cost of this sort of heating system is more expensive when compared to a traditional boiler. This second disadvantage is almost negated by the lifespan of this system which can be much more than 50 years.

If you happen to have the opportunity to construct a brand new house the ground source or an air source heat pump can provide you with cheap energy for many years to come.