This is the first in a series of articles which will inform Bulletin readers about future research work to be conducted at the Geo-Heat Center. It's purpose is to introduce the issues involved and outline the direction the research will take. In an upcoming research task, the Geo-Heat Center will be comparing some cost and performance aspects of different ground-source (geothermal) heat pump systems for commercial applications. Over a range of system sizes (50 to 500 tons), the work will examine capital cost and pumping energy requirements of the ground source portion of ground-coupled and groundwater systems. Due to the different factors influencing the cost of these two approaches, it is likely that for a given project one design will be substantially less costly than the other