Heating and cooling system employing remote buried storage areas

Claim 1

In a system for conditioning air being circulated in an enclosed space, including: a. an air distribution system; b. an air circulation means for circulating the air through the air distribution system; said air circulation means being connected with said air circulation system; and c. a first air heat exchanger for exchanging heat with said air; said first air heat exchanger being disposed in said air distribution system; the improvement for heat exchanging with ambient sources and comprising: d. a second heating heat exchanger for extracting heat from an ambient heat source: e. an elongate remote heat storage area buried beneath the earth's surface and employing the earth as the storage medium; f. a heating fluid circuit for flowing a heating fluid through said second heat exchanger and said elongate remote heat storage area; said heating fluid circuit being connected with said second heat exchanger and said remote heat storage area with an inlet connection and an outlet connection; said outlet connection being spaced from said inlet connection such that reverse flow will extract stored heat from said remote heat storage area; g. heating fluid in said heating fluid circuit; h. first heating pump means for and connected into said heating fluid circuit so as to circulate said heating fluid through said heating fluid circuit, through said second heat exchanger and through said remote heat storage area in a first direction for storing heat in said heat storage area; i. second heating pump means for and connected into said heating fluid circuit so as to circulate said heating fluid through said heating fluid circuit and said heat storage area in a second direction opposite said first direction for removing heat from said heat storage area; j. air heating circuit means for and connected so as to flow said heating fluid through said first air heat exchanger in heat exchange relationship with said air for heating said air; k. a third cooling heat exchanger for venting heat to an ambient source for cooling a cooling fluid; l. an elongate remote cold storage area buried beneath the earth's surface and employing the earth as the storage medium; m. a cooling fluid circuit for flowing a cooling fluid through said third cooling heat exchanger and said cold storage area; said cooling fluid circuit being connected with said third heat exchanger and with said cold storage area with an inlet connection and an outlet connection; said outlet connection being spaced from said inlet connection such that reverse flow will deposit heat and effectively extract cooling capability from said remote cold storage area; n. cooling fluid in said cooling fluid circuit; o. third cooling pump means for and connected into said cooling fluid circuit so as to circulate said cooling fluid through said remote cold storage area in a first direction for storing cooling capacity by removing heat from said cold storage area; p. fourth cooling pump means for and connected into said cooling fluid circuit so as to circulate said cooling fluid through said cooling fluid circuit and said cold storage area in a second direction opposite said first direction for giving up heat to said cold storage area after heat is removed from said air; q. air cooling circuit means for and connected so as to flow said cooling fluid through said first air heat exchanger in heat exchange relationship with said air for cooling said air when operating in the cooling mode.