Geothermal Heating:
An Important Source For Heating and Cooling Your Home

What is a ground source heat pump?
Ground source heat pumps (GSHPs) are electrically powered systems that tap the stored energy of the greatest solar collector in existence: the earth. These systems use the earth’s relatively constant temperature to provide heating, cooling, and hot water for homes and commercial buildings.

How do ground source heat pumps work?
Ground source heat pumps can be categorized as having closed or open loops and those loops can be installed in three ways: horizontally, vertically, or in a pond/lake. The type chosen depends on the available land areas and the soil and rock type at the installation site. These factors will help determine the most economical choice for installation of the ground loop. For closed loop systems, water or antifreeze solution is circulated through plastic pipes buried beneath the earth’s surface. During the winter, the fluid collects heat from the earth and carries it through the system and into the building.

During the summer, the system reverses itself to cool the building by pulling heat from the building, carrying it through the system and placing it in the ground. This process creates free hot water in the summer and delivers substantial hot water savings in the winter. Open loop systems operate on the same principle as closed-loop systems and can be installed where an adequate supply of suitable water is available and open discharge is feasible. Benefits similar to the closed-loop system are obtained. The global energy situation is overshadowed by the fact that oil and gas reserves will only last for a further 70 years for gas and 40 years for oil if current developments continue, and these reserves mainly lie in politically unstable regions. Renewable energy sources and energy efficiency is therefore crucial to achieving secure energy supplies, climate protection, energy efficiency, and cost stability.

Building The Right System

The utilization of natural energy with heat pumps continues to gain in importance. They reduce the proportion of fossil energy consumed that is required to generate the power used. Many countries in Europe now have implemented mandatory use of geothermal for heating and cooling systems.

There are many bad geothermal systems in operation, many have tried open well, shallow well, ponds, large coils at moderate depths without great success. We have done something a little different, drilling 1500 foot wells and building shell and tube closed loop geothermal system with Water Furnace heat pumps. This system is providing COP of over 5 almost constantly. The temperature we are pulling from well with Wilo Stratos ECM Technology pump is on average over 50 degrees Fahrenheit even during January & February temperatures, requiring no backup from solar or fossil fuel burning boiler.

This is not an inexpensive system, but if you take the investment of geo and spread it out over the term of the mortgage, the cost in very minimal payback is approx, 5-6 years at current fuel prices.

Many people don’t look at the operational cost of homes, well today it is very significant.
Electrical and fuel cost for a 3200 square foot home can be $5-6000.00 annually, depending on the building envelope.
Geothermal can do two things, reduce the operating cost of home and reduce carbon emissions in our atmosphere.