Whether you’re building a new house
or considering a new heating and cooling system for your
present one, consider the economical and environmental advantages
of geoexchange technology. It is the world’s most
advanced, most cost-efficient heating, ventilating and air
conditioning (HVAC) system for a new or existing home.
Geoexchange
is an increasingly popular choice, especially for new home
construction, but it’s as old as the earth itself.
By tapping into the relatively constant temperature of the
earth below the frost line, geoexchange heats and cools
your home at significant savings — 25% to 50% savings
when compared with traditional systems.
Geoexchange technology also offers you
greater levels of home comfort and control. A lot less maintenance.
Enhanced home resale value. And the endorsement of the US
Department of Energy (DOE) and the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA). So read on. The more you learn about geoexchange,
the more comfortable, cost-efficient and environmentally
conscious your home can be.
All of the comfort of home, out of the
ground.
Geoexchange is a simple technology that
uses the earth’s renewable energy to provide high-efficiency
heating and cooling. In winter, the system draws heat from
the ground and transfers it to your home. In summer, it
extracts heat from your home and transfers it to the ground.
Hardware consists only of a heat pump connected to a series
of small-diameter pipes buried underground. A water solution
circulating through the pipes carries heat between the ground
and the heat pump.
The highest efficiency of any HVAC system.
There isn't a single more efficient HVAC
technology than geoexchange. Oil and gas systems require
fuel for heat and a separate air conditioning system for
cooling. Geoexchange provides both in one system. The EPA
confirmed the superior efficiency of geoexchange, finding
that even on a source fuel basis — accounting for
all losses in the fuel cycle including electricity generation
at power plants — geoexchange systems average 40%
greater efficiency than air source heat pumps, 48% greater
efficiency than gas furnaces, and 75% higher efficiency
than oil furnaces. Today’s best geoexchange systems
outperform the best gas technology, gas heat pumps, by an
average of 36% in the heating cycle and 43% in the cooling
cycle.
The Best Environmental Choice
Preserving natural
beauty and resources. There are many other reasons
why geoexchange is your best choice for home heating and
cooling. Chief among them: minimal
environmental impact.
No one would ever
guess there’s a heating and cooling system in your
yard. Geoexchange preserves the natural beauty of your property.
The network of pipes can be hidden under your lawn, a garden,
even your driveway.
The geoexchange
unit is also out of sight — housed inside, protected
from the weather. The sealed pipes circulate water or a
non-toxic solution of water and anti-freeze that never comes
in contact with the earth. And, unlike traditional technologies
such as gas, oil and propane, geoexchange produces no combustion
or smoke. That helps lower greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide
and sulfur dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, as well
as pollution concerns over storage tanks in-ground.
Geoexchange systems
significantly reduce our dependence on the earth’s
finite supply of fossil fuels, and help keep our blue skies
blue.
Inside,
an atmosphere of peace and quiet. Living with a geoexchange
system is an exceptionally quiet and comfortable experience.
No noisy furnace. No fuel lines in your home. No worries
about soot, fumes or carbon monoxide, either. Geoexchange
systems offer unsurpassed indoor air quality, operate as
quietly as a refrigerator, and are so compact they can be
installed in an attic, basement, or small closet.
Two Kinds of Geoexchange Systems.
The most common geoexchange system, a
closed loop, circulates water or a mixture of water
and non-toxic antifreeze through a continuous loop of sealed
pipes buried, vertically or horizontally, under your property.
An
open loop system also uses
pipes, but draws water directly from a well, nearby lake
or pond. The water is then pumped through a heat exchanger,
which extracts the thermal energy and then returns the water
to the source.
Both closed and open loop systems use
heat pumps to transfer thermal energy into your home and
deliver it into individual rooms via heat ducts. In the
summer, the system works in reverse. Return air vents remove
hot air from each room and send it to the heat pump, which
transfers the excess heat back to the earth where it dissipates
underground.
Other types of geoexchange systems include
standing column wells, community loops and hybrid systems.
At Home in All Types of Houses
Many builders are familiar with geoexchange
heating and cooling. If yours is not, s/he will be pleasantly
surprised to learn that the technology has been around since
the 1940s. And that it has proven itself over many years
in hundreds of thousands of homes, commercial buildings
and offices, hospitals, schools and universities.
Geoexchange systems are found in all types
of housing, from luxury and middle-class homes, to townhomes
— even in Habitat for Humanity homes. Initial system
costs have declined to where they are on par with traditional
systems. More builders and heating and cooling contractors
are making geoexchange technology available. And innovative
installation techniques are also enabling them to install
ground loops more quickly (often in one day) and for lower
costs.
Less complexity, more comfort.
It's easy to understand and appreciate the technology
behind geoexchange heating and cooling. It employs basic
plumbing equipment — pipes, pumps, valves, heat exchangers,
fans and compressors. Routine maintenance consists of changing
the air filters. There’s no furnace or chimney to
clean. And since there’s no flame, geoexchange systems
operate at lower temperatures, which helps the components
last longer. The underground pipes, for example, are warranted
by some manufacturers for up to 50 years.
We have available several brochures, case
studies and videos to illustrate how a geoexchange system
can provide you with an economical, environmental, and comfortable
solution to meet your heating and cooling needs. Contact
us to determine the system that best suits your needs.
