UKC

Just moved into my new home - so whats the cheapest most eco friendly gas/electricity supplier? Also as I was pondering this I decided to solve global warming once and for all and got to thinking about geothermal energy. Its free (set up and running costs excepted), its clean (comparatively), its got huge reserves (undoubtably). Cant you just drill down, chuck down some cold water and exchange the heat that comes up. You dont even need a pump - convection should take care of it. Obviously its not possible as it would have been exploited years ago. Why?

In reply to simon clarke:

Skanska foundations have done some projects using piled foundations where the piles act as geothermal heating sources, and coolers in the warmer months. Most notable of these were Keeble college at Oxford.

There are some organisations who specialise in smaller domestic projects.

cheers

In reply to simon clarke:


The carbon cost of building a house is high.

To assuage your guilt for being part of this I suggest you live without any energy for 24 months / 36 months if it's larger than 200 sq .m.

Sorry not making myself clear. Two separate issues here, (1) which is the most ecologically friendly national supplier of gas and electricity who I can purchase from and (2) Why has geothermal energy not been taken up by energy suppliers in general.

Would have trouble sinking piles as I live on a boat.

In reply to simon clarke:

>(1) which is the most ecologically friendly national supplier of gas and electricity who I can purchase from and

it's all the same stuff, just marketed differently.

In reply to trevor simpson:

yes, you want to be invoiced on recyclable green paper preferably

In reply to simon clarke:
It's much harder to build a business model for the traditional energy suppliers. What you need are people doing the geological assessment, selling the equipment and drilling the holes - that's not really stuff that electricity and gas companies are into. Until now, there hasn't been much incentive for anyone to do it because energy has been relatively cheap.


When the Festival Hall was built in London, it drew heat from the River Thames for its heating. Not sure if that's still the case, but being on a boat might lend itself to thermal exchange heating.

Point taken that so far theres been no need to explore geothermal energy.

RE suppliers: there must be some around who want to take advantage of customers like me who want there money going on renewable sources/research...surely.

In reply to simon clarke:

Have a quick google:
http://www.earthenergy.co.uk/

In reply to simon clarke:

i'm with goodenergy.com

they seem nice + pay good rates for micro generation

Just looking at this

http://www.ecotricity.co.uk

Of course it could be a total rip off as usual.

In reply to simon clarke:

I'm with ecotricity and they seem to match my local supplier as they claim in their literature.

In reply to tony:

The festival hall system worked too well, but that was because they did not have controls fitted correctly. i believe they removed it as it froze up the pipes at times, stopping it working then.

http://www.buildingforafuture.co.uk/winter04/heatpumps.pdf