Geothermal Heat Pumps:
What Are They and
How Do They Work?
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 home? 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 has 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.
