The magic that allows you to heat and cool your home with solar energy stored in water or in the earth !
Geothermal heating and cooling systems use the natural constant ambient temperature of the earth to heat in the winter and cool in the summer. This is accomplished with a compressor or heat pump unit, the liquid heat exchanger medium, and the air delivery system.
Quite simply, geothermal systems in heating take heat from the earth, transfer that heat to a refrigerant, then distribute the heat into the structure with a forced-air or hydronic system.
In cooling, geothermal systems take heat from the structure, transfer the heat to the refrigerant, then transfer the heat back to the water or loop fluid. This works the same as a standard air conditioner, except a geothermal systems uses water or loop fluid at a constant temperature (average 50 degrees) instead of varying outdoor temperature.
In other words, it’s like heating and cooling your home when it’s 50 degrees outside all year!
Since water from the Earth is a constant temperature (approximately 55 degrees F in the Northeast), the WSHP has a constant source of 55 degrees F energy with a open loop system.
With a closed loop system the fluid circulates continuously inside the buried pipe, absorbing heat from the earth during the winter for use inside your home or business. In warmer months, the fluid takes heat from indoors and transfers it back into the earth.
An increasingly well loved approach, especially in residential systems, is a “slinky” coil. A slinky is a coil of plastic tubing spread out and overlapped in a trench and buried. Slinky coils are installed horizontally at the bottom of a three-foot-wide trench. (Depth my vary by location, but at least 5 ft.) This method concentrates the heat transfer surface into small volume, requiring less land area and shorter trenching – a huge plus for homeowners.
The WSHP is not subject to freezing like an AAHP unit, and operates without any problem regardless of outside temperatures.
The WSHP is extremely efficient; up to 400% more efficient than conventional heating systems according to the US Department of Energy.
Another feature on most geothermal systems is a Hot Water Generator. Hot Water Generators, or HWG’s, take refrigerant from the compressor, where it is very hot, and directs it to another small coaxial heat exchanger. In this HWG heat exchanger, water from a standard domestic hot water tank flows through, picking up heat from the hot refrigerant. This heat exchanger is double-walled, and vented so that there would be no contamination from the refrigerant if a leak occurred.
The HWG accomplishes three functions.
First, it typically heats 60% to 80% of a home’s hot water for FREE utilizing waste heat from the refrigeration process.
Second, it increases the efficiency of the compressor by removing some of the heat from the compressor.
Third, it increases the life expectancy of the compressor by allowing it to operate at a cooler temperature.
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