Geothermal heating and cooling through your foundation

Surface geothermal heating is available almost everywhere in Denmark. Especially in large coastal cities, there is ample opportunity to use the soil layers at a depth of 5-18 meters to extract stable energy from the ground, both for heating in winter but also for cooling in summer. In Denmark, surface geothermal heating is still a relatively unused but efficient resource for all types of buildings. Utilizing that source usually requires a large area – but with energy piles, it can be accessed through the foundation of the self-build.

Energy piles are prefabricated concrete piles for foundation of both larger buldings and regular houses. Unlike the traditional piles, energy piles have built-in geothermal hoses. In addition to using the piles as foundation, you can also extract heat from the ground and release heat from the building to the ground. In other words, with energy piles, you can both heat and cool your house efficiently using the earth’s energy.

Since the 1980s, this technology has been used in various projects, for example in Austria and Switzerland, where the ability of energy piles to cool the building has been particularly sought after. The energy piles can cool “passively” – which means that you simply and very cost-effectively send the house’s heat back to the energy piles and thus the ground, thereby lowering the indoor temperature by typically 3-4 degrees Celsius. So if it’s 26 degrees inside on a hot summer day, you can “passively” achieve a comfortable indoor temperature of 22 degrees. In winter, you will then benefit from the fact that the heat you have given to the ground can be retrieved and used for heating. In this way, a heating battery under the building has been created

As we in Denmark increasingly demand less climate-impacting energy sources, energy piles are gaining ground as a good solution.
For example, Bjarke Ingels Group chose to use energy piles as the foundation and geothermal heat source for their new headquarters in Nordhavn. In 2023/2024, several other builders will follow BIG’s example and use the energy poles.

So the question is, do you want to provide geothermal heating and cooling through your foundation? Muligheden er der, og hos Centrum Pæle står vi klar til at hjælpe dig med dimensionering af energipæle til dit næste byggeprojekt.

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