My husband and I make an effort to minimize our negative impact on the planet.
- We take pride in being as environmentally responsible as possible.
We share one vehicle and rarely use it. The majority of the time, we either take public transportation, ride our bicycles or walk wherever we need to go. We recycle all of our glass, plastic, paper and cans and have installed solar panels to handle our electrical needs. Because of the solar panels, we produce more electricity than we require. They supply sufficient power to run our heat pump. We invested quite a bit of money into the installation of a geothermal heating and cooling system. The cost was mainly due to the excavation necessary to bury the underground loop system. The geothermal system draws from the free and renewable energy source provided by the sun. Because the underground temperature remains fairly consistent all year round, the heat pump is able to draw heat out of the ground and transfer it into the house. During the summer, the operation reverses to pull heat out of the house and deliver it into the ground. This process eliminates the need to burn fossil fuels. With no combustion process, there’s no carbon monoxide or greenhouse gas emissions. A geothermal heat pump is the most environmentally friendly type of heating and cooling, achieving up to a 400% efficiency rating. The geothermal heat pump also supplies nearly all of our domestic hot water. The system is wonderfully clean, safe and quiet. It provides year round comfort, effectively combats excess humidity and works to filter out air contaminants. Although implementing the geothermal system was rather expensive, we’ve more than recovered the cost in energy savings.