What pretty much all people say they love most about a geothermal heating and cooling system is that it has so few moving parts. There’s just that much less that can go haywire– that much less to maintain. And that by itself goes a long way toward cutting the overall energy costs of Burlington homeowners who’ve gone geothermal.
Still, the system isn’t free of all moving parts. the bulk of them are found in its most critical component, too: the geothermal heat pump.
This is the system’s powerplant. Its role is to transfer heat. And it transfers heat either from the ground into your house or from your house into the ground, depending on the season30. Consequently, it’s a furnace and an air conditioner integrated into one compact package.
What, then, does a heat pump use to transfer heat? Water! Well, that or a solution incorporating antifreeze. This liquid circulates through underground loops of pipe that are linked to the above-ground heat pump. During heating season the liquid draws heat from the ground, the heat pump draws the warm liquid up into refrigerant coils, and from that point the heat is dispensed throughout a home by either a forced air or a hydronic system. During cooling season it runs in reverse: the pump draws heat from your home and transfers it to the ground by way of those same buried loops. Oh, and somewhere in all this, various geothermal systems also provide domestic hot water.
The critical difference between a geothermal heat pump and a standard furnace is that a heat pump doesn’t ignite fuel to generate heat. No, indeed, it takes heat that’s already there and just moves it around. That naturally makes it a much more efficient heating and cooling system. Recognize this, too: underground temperatures most often stay at around 50º F year round. The payoff? A geothermal heating and cooling system requires considerably less energy to cool your home than regular air conditioners.
So … is a geothermal system the answer for your Burlington home? Talk with this region’s geothermal wizards, the helpful people at Crabbe Service.