Air Ideal

Geothermal Heating & Cooling

Most of us are tired of living our lives dependent upon fossil fuels. They're expensive, toxic, dirty, non-renewable and their carbon emissions are seriously taxing Mother Earth and our own existence. In the past, renewable alternatives like geothermal were just too cost prohibitive to loosen our stranglehold on gas and oil, but that is no longer the case with the passing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. As a result, there has been significant interest generated in geothermal heat pumps because of the many economic and environmental benefits associated with them.

According to the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency:

• Geothermal heat pumps are the most cost-effective, energy-efficient and environmentally clean heating and cooling system available in the United States.
• Geothermal heat pumps can reduce energy consumption and corresponding emissions by more than 40% compared to air source heat pumps and by more than 70% compared to electric resistance heating with standard air-conditioning equipment.
• Geothermal heating and cooling systems are at least three times more efficient than fossil fuel systems. In energy consumption, Water Furnace systems use on average: 75% less primary energy than oil, 48% less primary energy than natural gas and 33% less primary energy than air-source heat pumps.

The U.S. Department of Energy also endorses the benefits of geothermal heat pumps, including quieter performance, reduced energy consumption and greater system longevity than conventional heating and cooling system.

Geothermal Explained

Essentially, Geothermal, also known as Geo-exchange, is just that, the exchange or extraction of solar energy stored in the earth. The sun's energy is soaked up by the earth year-round and stored below the initial frost layer. Just 5 feet below the surface, the soil remains a constant 50-55 degrees F year-round. A geothermal or geo-exchange system circulates water with antifreeze through a ground loop piping system to capture this energy and return it to a "ground source heat pump" for compression and uses that heat to meet the demand in your building or home. The reverse process moves the heat from your home to the earth to create cooling. Unlike fossil fuel and air-to-air heat pumps, a ground source heat pump can produce 5 times the amount of energy that is consumed with virtually no carbon footprint. A typical fossil fuel furnace can produce only 80% of the energy it consumes in the form of heat and does this while polluting the atmosphere.

There are several different ways to install ground source heat pumps depending upon your particular circumstance. There are 4 main types of geothermal heating and cooling. The first type is called "open loop" which pulls water from an open well to be used in your system and then returns it back to the aquifer via a rejection well, a standing column well or a leaching field. We don't advocate this type of system because of the brackish nature of water and the associated minerals and alloys contained in the earth. This type of system is less expensive, but does not have the same equipment lifespan as a "closed loop" system. It may also cause cross contamination of the aquifers if one of them contains surface pollutants.

There are 3 major types of closed loop systems including vertical loops, horizontal loops and pond/lake loops. Essentially, all 3 types use a closed and fused polyethylene piping system with a flow center (or pump) to circulate the heat exchange medium (water with methanol or another antifreeze) through the ground loops and through your ground source heat pump. We advocate vertical loops bored to a depth of about 200 feet with one vertical bore per ton. A vertical system requires the least amount of acreage for the best heat exchange. There is significant cost in drilling the vertical bores and filling them with a thermally conductive grout (called Betonite), but there is better heat transfer and less property and excavation required than horizontal loops, which lie just below the frost line at 5 feet. If you have a pond near your home or building, this can also be used by sinking a system of closed loop "slinkies" to the bottom to use the water and ground temperature below the freezing surface. For a more in-depth discussion of this process and a geothermal installation, please see our blog or this October 2009 article in Popular Mechanics. You can also watch this short Water Furnace video.

Incentives

There has never been a better time to make the decision to go geothermal. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provides the incentive of a 30% tax credit for residential consumers and a 10% credit OR grant for commercial building owners installing a qualifying geothermal system. For more specifics, residential consumers should refer to IRS Form 5695 and commercial building owners should review IRS Form 3468.

Should you perceive the initial financial outlay of installing a geothermal system as an obstacle to your decision to go green, please know that there are a vast array of subsidized local utility, New York State and federal programs and rebates as well as Geosmart Sustainable Financing Solutions. The average payback period or return on investment is approximately 3-6 years, depending upon your particular circumstances.

Air Ideal is an exclusive Greater New York and Long Island area dealer for Water Furnace products, the # 1 manufacturer of ground source heat pumps. We design, sell, install and service geothermal systems and Water Furnace equipment. We have made finding out your potential costs and savings easy by providing our intuitive Geothermal Savings Calculator. Please click here to find out how much Water Furnace ground source heat pumps can save you in just a few minutes.