Visit to watch more groundbreaking talks from the TED Fellows.
Of all the mundane yet astonishing marvels of human ingenuity, knowing what it takes to heat a room to a comfortable temperature is TED Fellow Kathy Hannun’s favorite. She takes us on a journey across the planet and under the sea to emphasize the dangers of modern heating, and offers a safer, planet-friendly alternative that taps into the geothermal energy right below our feet.
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design — plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You’re welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know.
Become a TED Member:
Follow TED on Twitter:
Like TED on Facebook:
Subscribe to our channel:
TED’s videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy (). For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at
[SHAPE YOUR FUTURE]
One of the hallmarks of living
in a technologically advanced society
is even the little details of life
that seem mundane
end up being astonishing,
like the fact that it takes five gallons
of water to produce a walnut,
or that half the plastic
that’s ever been made
has been made in the past 15 years.
My favorite of these examples
is what it takes
to keep a room room temperature.
Allow me to explain.
Heating is generally done
by combusting a fossil fuel.
So first, we have to find the fuel.
Unfortunately, it tends to be buried
more than a kilometer
under the earth’s surface,
and all too often, in inconvenient places,
like the Arctic Circle,
nations in conflict
or under the bottom of the ocean.
Then there’s the fact that the substance
takes 60 to 600 million years
to form from dead plankton.
So there’s that issue.
We drill these incredibly
deep holes to get it.
Then we pipe it, truck it
and ship it in tankers
across the world to refineries,
which are these incredibly expensive
industrial facilities
that take in crude oil and gas,
which are just a bunch of different
hydrocarbon molecules,
in order to sort those molecules
into refined products.
Refined natural gas is then delivered
to homes and businesses
via an invisible interstate highway system
millions of miles long.
It’s invisible because it’s underground.
There’s so much pipeline in this system
that entire steel mills have been built
only to produce pipeline for this system.
And because there are
millions of miles of gas
getting pumped beneath us
at high pressure at all times,
engineers send these intelligent robots
called “smart pigs”
through the pipelines
to check for safety defects.
Doing this is called
“pigging the pipeline.”
(Pig snort sound)
Yeah, that’s a real thing.
But even with these precautions,
there are accidents.
In 2010, the San Bruno natural gas
pipeline exploded in California.
Eight people died.
Eyewitnesses reported the blast looked
like a wall of fire 1,000 feet tall.
More recently, in 2018, excess pressure
in natural gas pipelines in Massachusetts
resulted in explosions
that killed somebody
and forced 50,000 others from their homes.
But, you know, despite all of this,
we’re actually jealous of people who live
close enough to these insane pipelines
to get gas into their homes,
because everyone else is stuck
with even worse options,
like fuel oil and propane.
These fuels don’t have pipelines
in place for delivery,
so instead, tens of thousands of trucks
go from home to home
in neighborhoods throughout the country,
pumping these fuels into tanks
in homeowners’ basements and yards.
And regardless of what heating fuel
you use — gas, propane or oil —
you better have a carbon
monoxide detector
so your heating system doesn’t
accidentally kill you in the night,
because hundreds of Americans die
in exactly that way each year.
So that’s the system we have today.
Safe to say, it has some downsides.
Don’t get me wrong —
it’s a marvel of human ingenuity,
but with some pretty serious drawbacks.
And the rigamarole of conventional heating
feels even more over the top
when you consider that every home
is already sitting right on top of
a vast reservoir of renewable energy:
geothermal energy.
Let’s talk about geothermal energy.
Starting a few feet under
the earth’s surface,
the ground is awash in thermal energy.
This is why caves and wine cellars,
they never get too hot or too cold.
They’re just bathed in
this low-grade heat.
Geothermal heating systems
draw on this heat,
using what are called “ground loops,”
which are just simple plastic pipes
buried under the yard.
These ground loops are then connected
to a heat pump that sits inside the home,
typically where a furnace once was.
More and more homeowners are choosing
geothermal over fuel-based options.
I see this shift up close every day,
because I cofounded a company
to create a new kind of ground-up utility
by making it as easy
and inexpensive as possible
to switch from conventional
heating to geothermal.
We’ve done this by creating a service
where homeowners can fill out
a form on our website,
we design a geothermal
heating system for them,
and then we install that system using
purpose-built tools and equipment.
Once the installation is done,
that home will have moved on
from fossil heating forever,
because those ground loops,
they’ll last as long as the home itself.
As each home switches over,
a new kind of utility is taking hold —
a distributed utility,
made up of homes exchanging
renewable energy with the ground.
This new infrastructure is simple,
local and inexpensive to operate,
and it represents a permanent
and wholesale shift
away from fossil fuels.
The groundwork is being laid, so to speak,
for the idea that maybe
we don’t need to destroy the world
in order to keep our rooms
at a comfortable temperature.
Let’s leave the Arctic Circle
and the seafloor alone,
bypass the refineries and the pipelines
and stop worrying that our families will
accidentally be poisoned in the night.
Instead, let’s use the massive
amounts of energy
that are already right there
for the taking,
right beneath every building on earth.
Thank you.
Science & Technology4 years ago
CNET4 years ago
Wired6 years ago
People & Blogs3 years ago
Wired6 years ago
Wired6 years ago
Wired6 years ago
CNET5 years ago
Allen Barclay Allen
June 28, 2021 at 6:50 pm
The California methane fires were not from piping natural Gass, they were from DRAINED WATER ACUFERS to the point that methane underneath the water can no longer stay liquid AND TURNS TO PRESDUREISED VAPOR TO THE SERGACE and burnt those people out of their homes without even touching a leave on the tree.. Do not group that in with natural gas piping there is no connection between the two !
sean tap
June 28, 2021 at 6:58 pm
Nice commercial.
Based Department
June 28, 2021 at 7:15 pm
This has been around for years, and in my 15 years of HVAC in multiple states like Idaho, Oregon, North Dakota ive seen about 3 installed personally very few ever ask about it but when they do they see the amount of work that goes with it and the price and run away. Lol
TYPE xxi - WOLF
June 28, 2021 at 7:16 pm
quite old and nothing new, but feels like a huge ad campaign … and not a solution.
And these systems can have also a lot of downside if deployed in bigger scales by communities or cities cause here they had caused earthquakes and for all that do not believe that simply do the research.
No insurance company was willing to insure the project with all its risks cause the first time they had rejected to have cause that earthquake but the second time they ran in trouble.
And even in small use cases the truth is that it not always will work out or that you to digg a lot deeper than planned and then the costs will explode for drilling that particular hole needed.
It is simply just one solution among others where you can choose from, some are easier, some are cheaper but at the end it will depend on your preferences and mix or situation. Here we can not sell surplus energy from private wind turbines and solar roofs and then it can make sense to produce hydrogen cause it is a chance to store energy for a longer time at least in a neighbourhoood were all agree to work on a common solution. Batteries can not achieve that and so we use the fuel cell as combination of heating and power generation in the dark cold time.
Monasha Hansini
June 28, 2021 at 7:28 pm
What a great talk 👌👏💕 I admire this most👏👍
Dan R
June 28, 2021 at 7:29 pm
Is this an advertisement? Do you not know people live in flats and small houses cant support this? I have a very small garden. The HVAC are noisy too. They 15k!!!!!!! Or more and you need to take out all your rads as they aren’t warm enough!
James Joyce
June 28, 2021 at 7:41 pm
Only the last 2 minutes is about the topic. I was hoping for a little information, not a screed that we are all aware of. If I didn’t already know the problem, I probably wouldn’t be concerned with a solution. I guess the title isn’t an outright lie, since you get around to some lip-service. Let’s call it a con, then.
RafaGmod
June 28, 2021 at 7:45 pm
lulz.
I didn’t knew that you need just some feet under de ground. I really thought you neeed to dig deep and only some places could use geothermal
Tiavor Kuroma
June 28, 2021 at 7:59 pm
Every time geothermal energy was tried in central Europe, it resulted in a whole village cracking in half.
Mike Hines
June 28, 2021 at 8:52 pm
I’ve been in caves in Alaska that go deep Underground the hold a consistent comfortable temperature that was 30 years ago
TRIBE OF MENTORS
June 28, 2021 at 9:09 pm
*The world is full of nice people. If you can’t find one, be one* 🙏
makaan1932
June 28, 2021 at 9:31 pm
3 and a half minutes till she starts talking about the actual topic. Wow. And the topic is neither in the thumb nail nor in the title. That’s click bait.
makaan1932
June 28, 2021 at 9:32 pm
This is advertisement ?!?
Steven Hyatt
June 28, 2021 at 9:33 pm
Mr Eddie Dewayne is the best, recommending him to all beginners who want to recover losses like I did
Barbara David
June 28, 2021 at 9:36 pm
@Joshua Logan How can one reach an expert in trading cause I have lost a lot of money trading with a wrong expert
Joshua Logan
June 28, 2021 at 9:37 pm
@Barbara David
+=1= 6=1=2=5=0=2=1=4=9=5
Joshua Logan
June 28, 2021 at 9:37 pm
Text him directly on whats appk
Joshua Logan
June 28, 2021 at 9:40 pm
@Barbara David Please let him know you were referred by one of his client
Tyller Harry
June 28, 2021 at 9:41 pm
Trading with Expert Eddie Dewayne was the biggest thing I have ever dreamed of. I advise you to give him a try, you will never regret it
BensonDanneskjold
June 28, 2021 at 9:51 pm
Not to confuse the issue with facts but in the US, 60% of the electricity needed to operate the heat pump comes from burning either coal or natural gas.
Andrew Cox
June 28, 2021 at 10:33 pm
Air source heat pumps are a lot simpler aren’t they? Much easier to service than buried pipes right?
Andrew Cox
June 28, 2021 at 10:36 pm
In Europe we have buildings that are hundreds of years old. In Japan houses are often torn down and replaced after a few decades. What do you mean when you say your ground loops will last as long as the homes they are installed under?
Dr. Ricco Lindner
June 28, 2021 at 10:39 pm
Greetings from Germany, we get more and more sytems that gain energy from deep soil, ground water or even the air almost down to the freezing point. I personally utilize such electric heatings supported by the heat in the ground. However it usually provides less than 50% of demand, if I am correct
Andrew Cox
June 28, 2021 at 10:41 pm
Starts at 03:16
Andrew Cox
June 28, 2021 at 10:44 pm
Search for “technology connections heat pump” for a clearer explanation of heating homes with heat pumps.
Andrew Cox
June 28, 2021 at 10:45 pm
Does her virtual utility company cover the costs of the ground works, retain ownership of the ground loops, and charge home owners to use the loops the way a conventional utility charges for fuel?
J vdB
June 28, 2021 at 11:32 pm
Nice Tedvertisement
Sunset Rider
June 29, 2021 at 12:05 am
All my electricity is from hydro, so it is a clean renewable energy. Quebec has lots of clean energy and will have even more in the future to export. 😉
dryzalizer
June 29, 2021 at 12:39 am
This was an extremely disappointing ad, TED should be ashamed.
Nikki Koo
June 29, 2021 at 8:27 am
In Germany our house runs with a similar system that uses air instead of the ground because we are living in a water reserve area. It is called air-water-pum. These systems function like a fridge but the other way around and only use electricity. The good thing is that the electricity you use for the heater is cheaper thanks to substitutions by the state.
Lots of newly build homes decide for these systems because if you get a heating system that is run by gas you would have to put solar panels on your rooftop and sell the electricity for a cheap price – if you like it or not.
We will put some solar plates on the rooftop, too, so we can run as self-sufficient as possible in the near future.
Love to see how the market is changing and the possibilities that you now have when it comes to going green.
Artem Klimov
June 29, 2021 at 9:14 am
You still need to use electricity and a special equipment (heat pumps that resemble air conditioner system) with some refrigerant in it. Would be nice if such video showed some analysis on it – numbers, comparisons, drawback, etc. Otherwise it sounds very black and white and like someone is trying to sell me something.
Qrori Harr
June 29, 2021 at 9:52 am
now ask her if your neighbours are using the same technology what happens, this is plain advertising, she just doesn’t point the problems with geothermal
Samtagri
June 29, 2021 at 9:57 am
The first TED video I watched was about an innovative new desktop design. It was fun, fresh, interesting. Now TED turned into the political correctness police. Environment issues, racism, sexism, … although all very important topics, do not necessarily belong here. For sure not as the great majority of the topics presented. At least this is not what I’m here for.
Brendan White
June 29, 2021 at 10:12 am
Why don’t you just live in the ground dummy
John Smith
June 29, 2021 at 11:54 am
Its nice if you have house with the space to make this work, in high density housing and flats, no chance
Hagay Muzan
June 29, 2021 at 12:33 pm
A founder talking about her company – so this video is commercial advertising…
Keshab Poudel
June 29, 2021 at 2:25 pm
Can you please share more details of this idea. It’s kind like interesting but we have to take into consideration the cost aspects also.
I felts did it’s a kind of advertisement rather than idea sharing.
義岡昇
June 29, 2021 at 3:31 pm
Ted.定かじゃないけど、今回の新型コロナパンデミックで、Web会議のOne On Oneの会話が、スペースにパーテーションさえあれぱ自宅のリビングと子供達のダイニングテーブルや寝室を繋いで出来る事を発見した。教師同士の対話。スマホより大きなタブレットて３カ国語位の翻訳機能さえあれぱもっと助かる。バックパックに入る大きさで、リチュウム電池パックの充電だけでは無く、交換が可能だと助かる。これを町中の閉店した店舗の内装に置き換えてみる。大きな安いモニター画面がある。コネクターを繋げて色々出来る。カラオケに民謡に童謡に？
アンプ内蔵スピーカーがあれば、安いマイクロフォンでアコースティックギターが静かに響き、三味線や、琴が静かに癒やす空間になる。
フリースクール制度に参加したい町の叔父さんや叔母さんから、「方言や英会話」を教えて貰う。楽しく遊びの中に取り入れる。囲碁・将棋・オセロ・トランプ遊び・手芸に革工芸。月～土で午前中と午後のお手当て1500円の責任者を決める。屋内にはテーブルとパイプ椅子と、段差を設けた畳かフローリングさえあればいい。これで、自宅↔フリースクール制度↔国際間↔学力別の「ネットワークが完備」される。
ユニセフや青年海外協力隊とも繋がる可能性がある。勿論、「オープンスペースの教育の無償化の手伝い！」
↑
学校で沢山のホームワークを出すより効果的に楽しく学べるかも知れない。地域の児童教育、福祉などへの還元も期待出来る。
↑
どう思う？（笑）
でわでわ、日本語での長文のコメント。大変失礼致しました。
2021/06/30 00:31
By Lazy Shingo ✌💜拝
Andrew Cox
June 29, 2021 at 4:47 pm
This is what her company (which began inside Google/Alphabet) actually innovates on (a better drill for vertical ground loops, credit financing to lower up-front costs by getting into debt, and software to let homeowners perform their own site survey and calculate a correctly-sized system for their property):
“The process of installing ground loops in homeowners’ yards has typically been messy and intrusive, using wide drills that are designed to dig water wells at depths of over 1,000 feet. These machines are unnecessarily large and slow for installing a system that needs only a few 4” diameter holes at depths of a few hundred feet. So we decided to try to design a better drill that could reduce the time, mess and hassle of installing these pipes, which could in turn reduce the final cost of a system to homeowners.
We began prototyping and testing all sorts of ideas, like modifying a jackhammer that could burrow itself into the ground; freezing the ground with liquid nitrogen and chipping the soil away with a hammer; and even using a high pressure water jet to obliterate the ground at rocket speeds. After months of testing, we hit upon a design for a fast, slender drill that hit our objectives. It could drill just one or two deep holes just a few inches wide, and compared to typical installation rigs, it produced less waste and took up much less space as it operated. It left a typical suburban backyard relatively undisturbed, so we could minimize landscaping costs for homeowners. Just as importantly, it was fast; we could install all the ground loops in less than a day, instead of the more typical 3 or 4 days.”
…
“using technological innovations pioneered by the oil and gas industry, Hannun’s Dandelion Energy has created a drilling system that limits the amount of land needed and the surface damage done to achieve the same result.”
…
“The Dandelion system will cost homeowners much less than conventional systems, and we’re signing up our first customers now in the state of New York, where we’re also looking to partner with local heating and cooling installers. And we’ve developed a financing program that will allow homeowners to install a Dandelion system for no money down and save money from day one while locking in low, predictable payments for heating and cooling. To help us with sales and operations, we’ve just closed an initial round of seed funding, led by Collaborative Fund.
We’re grateful for our time at X and Alphabet, where we drew on X’s prototyping techniques and labs to develop our drilling technology faster than we ever expected. Now we look forward to helping New Yorkers enjoy an affordable, clean and abundant source of energy and, we hope, someday, a better planet.”
…
“Dandelion can install a system for a total cost of less than >>>> $30,000 <<<<." ... "Homeowners in New York’s Hudson Valley pay about >>>> $115 a month over 20 years <<<< --less than oil or gas in the winter, or even air conditioning in the summer." ... "it’s also offering financing over long periods, so homeowners can use energy savings to pay off what they owe in increments" ... "Hannun came to geothermal while working as a product manager for Google X. Her goal: take geothermal “down the path that solar has been down over the past two decades, and bring it from a very niche technology to one that replaces furnaces and boilers.”" ...
Maurice M.
June 29, 2021 at 5:36 pm
Disabling the comments on your videos. What a fucking shame. That‘s it. Time to unsubscribe after nearly a decade. RIP TED.
Jonathan S.
June 29, 2021 at 11:28 pm
Why is this ad on the TED channel?
Hippienolic 2
June 29, 2021 at 11:34 pm
Very cool but I can’t help but feel like I watched an advertisement
Lisa Love Ministries
June 29, 2021 at 11:43 pm
Ephesians 1:4 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ”
Alonso Cobarrubias
June 30, 2021 at 4:02 am
A highly efficient system.
Anthony Higham
June 30, 2021 at 5:06 am
Heating for the virtue signalling rich.
Arkadiusz Schmeichel
June 30, 2021 at 5:23 am
Jesus, these sound effects are so annoying
Prem Anand
June 30, 2021 at 6:05 am
You can even cool your house by this process
l3if
June 30, 2021 at 7:14 am
Renewable heat, right below your feet
Andrew Cox
June 30, 2021 at 9:44 am
From their email: “If you happen to have friends, family, or neighbors in New York State who are looking for a better heating & cooling system register for our Referral Program. You’ll earn $1,000 for every friend who installs a geothermal system, and your friend will get a $500 reward from once their system is installed.”
John Lawyer
June 30, 2021 at 1:07 pm
Is this a Ted talk or a commercial for her business?
MA-Rider
June 30, 2021 at 4:03 pm
This is a sales pitch for geothermal heat pumps. No mention that electricity is required to operate the heat pump and circulate fluid through the thermal loops. It has its advantages and disadvantages. First cost can be high. Land space to install the loops is also required. Wells can be used but they are also expensive. Not all locations are practical. Also if heating and cooling energy use is not comparable, the loops can heat up or cool down over time causing them to become non functional. Always get an independent cost-payback analysis comparing alternate systems done first.
Jonathan Jollimore
June 30, 2021 at 4:34 pm
*middle finger* for making me even think about heating right now LOL