Hot Springs Hotel has recently taken advantage of the geothermal energy smothering the hotel property by using a heat energy substitution appendage to furnish hot water for all hotel prerequisites conceived to be a first for Fiji.

After much tanoa talanoa, (words) it was decided something must be done to tackle this wasted resource, and at the same time, reduce hotel operating costs or in this case, extinguish the gas government note, so a simple heat exchanger was contrived and built.

The concept is the reverse of its marine applications programme where sea body of water is disseminated to cool hot locomotive engines, or in aircraft where cold fuel is warmed by hot locomotive engine organizations.

The hotel water supply is heated up by being diffused through the heat exchanger sunk in a geothermic hot spot on the hotel property.

The town water supply puts down the heat exchanger at the “outside” temperature of some 25 grades and is heated up to 50 grades prior to recording the hotel reticulation organization.

The appendage is all gravity-fed, thus fending off the demand for any extra pumps.

Ian Lilo, hotel maintenance handler oversaw the whole process.

Mr Lilo sounded out the beauty about geothermal energy was that it was a 24-hour, seven-days a workweek provision. This he enounces heartbeats the challenges of solar systems which is solely utile during daytime times of day on good cheery daytimes or consistent air current for wind generators.

Source: fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=169697

Ground source heating and cooling provides high-comfort and cost-effectiveness with an environmentally friendly technology that makes use of the Earth’s capacity to store energy in the form of heat. Geothermal Heating Systems move heat from the earth or water into a building, or from a building back into the earth. A small amount of electricity is used to operate pumps, fans, controls, and small compressor.

GHPs utilize the relatively constant temperature of the ground or water several feet below the surface as a source of heating and cooling and are appropriate for both retrofit or new homes. In addition to space heating and cooling, geothermal heat pumps can provide hot water with virtually no additional energy requirements because GHPs don’t create heat; they merely move it from one area to another. This is a relatively new technology that can save homeowners money

Although the initial cost of a new geothermal system is generally more expensive than a traditional heating and cooling system, the extra investment is returned within five to ten years. The ground loop piping is estimated to last over fifty years, and even the internal parts have about a 25 year life span. Every year about 50,000 new geothermal heating systems are added in the United States. They’re very reasonable for most areas and can use the Earth for heating when temperatures drop and as a heat sink when it’s hot outside.

Many new residential systems are equipped with desuperheaters which transfer excess heat from the geothermal heat pump’s compressor to the home’s hot water storage tank providing very efficient water heating. However, the desuperheater will not provide hot water during the spring and fall when the geothermal heat pump system is not operating. But because the geothermal heating system is so much more efficient than other means of water heating, some manufacturers are offering ‘full demand’ systems that utilize a separate heat exchanger to cost-effectively provide for hot water needs.