Archive for the How it Works Category

How Deep Are Geothermal Loops?

How Deep Are Geothermal Loops?

A geothermal heating and cooling system consists of two main components: the heat pump and the ground loop. While some people in the industry refer to the ground loop as the heat exchanger, many people simply refer to it as the loop or the loop field. After a geothermal system has been installed for several months to a year, the grass from the drilling will have grown back a person could walk over the loop field and not even know that it exists. This is ironic considering how important of a ...

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Seasonal Thermal Storage & Geothermal

Seasonal Thermal Storage & Geothermal

Hey, folks! We hope you're being green for Halloween! There are tons of options, really. The Green Goblin. Any one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Or hey, why not be a geothermal heat pump - those are green, too . . . Okay, got a little carried away there - back to the real point of this post - seasonal thermal storage and geothermal heating and cooling. As you know, geothermal is perhaps the most efficient heating and cooling technology out there. You've read it here and everywhere else ...

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Combining Geothermal Heating and Solar Power

Combining Geothermal Heating and Solar Power

The renewable energy debate often focuses on comparing and contrasting green technologies like solar power and geothermal heating and cooling. Which is the more cost-effective alternative? Which is best for the environment? While solar power is clearly the more popular of the two resources, there are plenty of people (ourselves included) backing geothermal. Obviously, we believe that geo has the potential to be as widespread and well-known as solar, and that, one day, it will be. All of that ...

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Hot Water with a Residential Geothermal Heat Pump

Hot Water with a Residential Geothermal Heat Pump

Geothermal heat pumps can be used for more than just heating and cooling your home. A geothermal heat pump can be used for hot water, snow melt, ice-making, and even pool heating. Using a geothermal heat pump for hot water heating can actually make your heat pump even more efficient! What you'll need If you plan on using your ground source heat pump for hot water you'll need to add a desuperheater. A desuperheater captures the heat that is naturally lost by running the heat pump. ...

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Geothermal Energy vs. Geothermal Heat Pumps

Geothermal Energy vs. Geothermal Heat Pumps

Geothermal heating versus geothermal energy. Both are green energy solutions and both are called geothermal; so what's the difference? Geothermal heating and geothermal energy both rely on underground temperature to harness energy, however, the way each process extracts the air from the ground is done on very different sized scales. Homeowners are often discouraged from installing a geothermal heat pump because it is often easily confused with geothermal energy, which is a large production. Here ...

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