You spend hundreds in energy bills yearly to heat and cool your home. Meanwhile, there’s a limitless energy source beneath your feet. Can you use geothermal energy to keep your home comfortable? Here’s what you need to know.
How Geothermal Energy Works
The weather may fluctuate, but beneath the earth’s surface, about 20 feet down, the temperature remains consistently between 50 and 60 degrees. A geothermal heat pump makes use of that consistency to heat and cool the air in your home.
A loop of pipe is buried underground, with water or another liquid circulating through it. In summer, that liquid absorbs the heat from your home’s air and uses the coolness underground to dissipate it. In winter, the underground temperature is warmer than the icy, Ohio weather. The liquid absorbs that extra heat to warm the air. The heat pump does still need to heat or cool the air a bit further before it goes to your home, but it takes much less energy when there’s a renewable source doing most of the work.
Types of Geothermal Heat Pumps
There are different types of geothermal heat pumps, depending on your property. Most homes use horizontal loops across a wide area in your backyard, with the pipes buried 30 feet down. If your property doesn’t have enough space for the pipes to spread, though, you can get a vertical loop. In this setup, the pipes are buried straight down, anywhere from 50 to 500 feet deep, so they can be long enough for the liquid to circulate adequately within a smaller area.
If you live near a body of water, consider a lake-source heat pump to get your geothermal energy. Instead of underground, the loop of pipe goes 8 feet or more underwater. This provides the same constant temperature but is cheaper to install. Finally, an open-loop heat pump uses a well or other source for the liquid, then recycles the water back into the source once it cycles through.
To learn more about the benefits of geothermal energy in your home, contact us at Ace Hardware Home Services. We keep Dayton homes comfortable and efficient.
