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Moving back to my native New Zealand this year, I had the chance to try a different kind of heating system for our house here. One of the most intriguing technologies I’m hearing about here is something I never heard of – an air heat pump.
I was familiar with the very eco correct “geothermal” or ground heat pump, only because I write about green building. This pumps air through pipes that loop through your house and down about 5 feet underground where the temperature is a relatively constant 55 degrees F, summer and winter, from Maine to Miami, bringing up a moderate temperature, even though above-ground temperatures can veer from below 0 to over 100 through the seasons. Staying at a moderate 55 F year round makes it a lot easier to make up the difference (with heating or cooling) to the comfortable 65 or so that we humans evolved to like best.
