Here is a great quote about
Here is a great quote about the 2nd Law that I got from a Super Bowl Commercial this past Sunday:

“You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory of relativity to serve. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.”

Who do you think said this? It wasn’t Maxwell. To give you another hint, this quote was obviously made before the Second “Theory” became “Law” 😉
Also, it was quoted to encourage you to buy a certain brand of pickup truck.

The simple answer is that the
The simple answer is that the Ranque-Hilsch Vortex Tubes are enchanted. The complex answer is that each employs a clone of Maxwell’s Demon, who stands at the entrance to the tube and, simply sorts the incoming air molecules according to their velocities, thus producing hot and cold streams, which can be directed to cool or heat objects at opposite ends of the tube.

Gerald, since no one else
Gerald, since no one else seems to want to help, I will take a shot at answering your question using the Second Law.

If you look at the diagram at the top of this blog and reverse the arrows so that it represents a heat pump instead of a power cycle, the Second Law says that the maximum COP for this system in heating is COPHmax = QH/W = TH/(TH-TL). TH is the indoor temperature, TL is the heat “source” temperature, so TH-TL is the difference between the indoor temperature and heat source temperature. Thus, the smaller the value of TH-TL, the greater is the possible value for COPH. I am not sure where you live, but if it is in the northern U.S., TL is probably around 50 F if the ground is your heat source and TL is usually below 50 F if the outside air is your heat source. Thus, a ground-coupled heat pump should win whenever the outdoor temperature is below 50 F. The same logic applies to cooling where COPLmax = QL/W = TL/(TH-TL), and TL is now the indoor temperature and TH is the outdoor air or ground temperature. As long as the ground temperature is below the outdoor air temperature, a ground-coupled heat pump wins. I hope that your saved energy pays for your six 300-foot bore holes.

I am not criticizing your choice, in fact, I use to own a house with a ground-water source heat pump and I loved it for all of the reasons you mentioned. It was a relatively cheap system since it used the same 80-foot deep well and pump as the water supply for my house, and then just dumped the water in a shallow field tile in my back yard with sandy soil.