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1. What is a geothermal heat pump?
A geothermal heat pump is an electrically-powered device
that uses the natural heat storage ability of the earth
and/or the earth's groundwater to heat and cool your home or
business.
2. How does it work?
Like any type of heat pump, it simply moves heat energy from
one place to another. Your refrigerator works using the same
scientific principle. By using the refrigeration process,
geothermal heat pumps remove heat energy stored in the earth
and/or the earth's groundwater and transfer it indoors.
3. How is heat transferred between the earth
and the home or building?
The earth has the ability to absorb and store heat energy.
To use that stored energy, heat is extracted from the earth
through a liquid medium (groundwater or an anti-freeze
solution) and is pumped to the heat pump or heat exchanger.
There, the heat is used to heat the air. In summer, the
process is reversed and indoor heat is extracted from
indoors and transferred to the earth through the liquid.
4 . Does it do both heating and cooling?
One of the things that makes a heat pump so versatile is its
ability to be a heating and cooling system in one. You can
change from one mode to another with a simple flick of a
switch on your indoor thermostat. In the cooling mode, a
geothermal heat pump takes heat from indoors and transfers
it to the cooler earth through either groundwater or an
underground loop system.
5. Do I need separate ground loops for
heating and cooling?
No. The same loop works for both. All that happens when
changing from heating to cooling, or vice versa, is that the
flow of heat is reversed.
6. What types of loops are available?
There are two main types: open and closed. The next two
sections will give you specifics about each.
7. Does the underground pipe system really
work?
The buried pipe, or "ground loop," is the most recent
technical advancement in heat pump technology. The idea to
bury pipe in the ground to gather heat energy began in the
1940s. It's only been in the last few years that new heat
pump designs and improved pipe materials have been combined
to make geothermal heat pumps the most efficient heating and
cooling systems available. |
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and Sons uses the latest technology by the some of the
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