Though a ground-source heat pump is more expensive to install, the high efficiency rate and low operating costs result in a net savings. Ground-source heat pumps have the ability to reduce energy usage of cooling systems to fifty percent and heating systems to forty percent. Heat pumps also use twenty-five to fifty percent less electricity than conventional heating and cooling systems, saving an average housing unit 6,445 kWh per year. If designed and installed correctly, ground-source pumps can last up to twenty years and require very little maintenance. Ground-source pumps are also beneficial because they use much less floor space than conventional systems and have much lower levels of noise.
Heat pumps are a much cleaner and more environmentally safe way of heating and cooling homes.
Not only does that significantly lower the level of heat-pump emissions, the heat from air, water and earth are all forms of renewable solar energy. In 1990, there were only about 100,000 ground-source heat pumps in the United States. If this number grows by 4,000 pumps per year, by the year 2005, consumers could save 400 million dollars and reduce greenhouse emissions by over one million metric tons per year. Using heat pumps saves energy, money, and the environment. Therefore there are great strides and efforts in new technology to develop more fuel-efficient vehicles.