Earth Heat Helps Warm Mcdonald’s Burger Chain Tests Potential Of Using Geothermal Energy

A McDonald’s now being built may be the most down-to-earth restaurant in the chain.

The Detroit prototype will use the earth to heat, cool and provide hot water with no flame or fossil fuels.

The 3,600-square-foot restaurant, to open in December, won’t look any different, but anyone who washes his or her hands with hot water at the store, for example, will be using water heated naturally. And instead of using a heater or an air-conditioner to control temperature, the geothermal system will use the earth’s constant natural temperatures.

The store will be the first in the chain to use a geothermal heating and cooling system. If the prototype is successful, the company could roll out the systems chainwide.

“Geothermal systems have been used widely by residential customers for a number of years, but this is one of the first commercial restaurant applications,” said Dennis Manning of Detroit Edison.

The system works by absorbing the natural heat of the earth into a solution of water and environmentally friendly antifreeze that is stored in an underground pipe. The temperature in the pipe remains steady at about 50 degrees. To increase the temperature, the solution is pressurized to reach a temperature in excess of 180 degrees. To cool it, the process is reversed and the heat is returned to the earth.