Ahamoment.com is a Mutual of Ohama-funded site that captures peoples' big ideas. Photo courtesy of Angie Bee.
I have spent a lot of time the past few years studying the geo industry and surveying and interviewing a vast assortment of characters. One of the more interesting aspects I became aware of was the degree to which anyone coming into contact with heat pumps had a revelatory “Aha” moment, when the scales fell from your eyes and you suddenly “just get it.”
When respondents in one of the Project Negatherm surveys were asked how they first learned of ground source heat pumps and how they became involved in the business, they replied in a variety of ways: a current driller is a former HVAC contractor who was asked about GSHPs by their customers, another is a former middle school teacher who learned about it from his students. Most respondents mentioned taking IGSHPA, Heatspring or NGWA training classes as their first contact. The tag cloud highlights the content generated from the following question: “How did you first learn about GSHP technology?”
Tagcloud of answers to "How dd you learn iof GSHP?" Courtesy of Wordle.com
Thermodynamic laws are like finance concepts: there is no gradual progress in grasping them. It either makes sense or it doesn’t. But when it does, when the constant temperature of the ground combines with the differences throughout the year between ground and air temps and the heat transfer properties of water and the thermal compression ratios kicks in, that’s how “Ahas” happen. Of course, the difference about people within the geo industry is the width and depth of these epiphanies, which are powerful enough to get people spreading the word and making a career out of providing sustainable cooling, heating and hot water.
So why do you do what you do? What was your “Geo Aha Moment?” Comment below.
