Installing a geothermal cooling system in your greater Indianapolis home positions you for significant energy savings over the life of the system. You can use geothermal energy to cool and heat your home, sourcing free, renewable energy from under the ground. Learn how it works to better understand why geothermal cooling and heating systems rate high in efficiency, and why they have a very small impact on the environment.
How geothermal cooling works
A geothermal heat pump, which can provide both cooling and heating, takes advantage of the fact that the ground maintains a consistent moderate temperature, no matter what the weather is like. A correctly installed geothermal cooling and heating system uses a buried earth loop to convert this free energy into affordable and energy-conserving central heating or air conditioning. When heating, the most common type of geothermal heat pump uses the earth loop (carrying a water/anti-freeze mix) to extract collected solar heat from underground. After the heat pump removes heat from the loop, using refrigeration technology, it’s distributed into your home via your ductwork. For geothermal cooling, the heating process is reversed to efficiently cool the home. Instead of removing heat from the ground, heat is pulled from the air in your home and either returned to the earth loop and rejected back into the ground, or used to cheaply heat water for your home.
Environmentally friendly system
During the cooling process, a geothermal heat pump can offer more efficient performance than an air-source heat pump, since it takes less energy to reject heat energy back into the relatively cool earth than to release it into the warm air.
As a result of the super-efficient cooling and heating, the operating costs of a geothermal system are very inexpensive, though installation is generally costlier than a standard HVAC system. This is because excavating trenches or holes for the horizontal or vertical loop fields can be a major expense. The good news is that, along with solar systems, geothermal heating and cooling is arguably the most efficient type of HVAC system available. This is why the federal government continues to offer a 30 percent tax credit for qualifying geothermal and solar systems, which makes installation costs much more affordable.
If you have questions about geothermal cooling and heating, please contact us at Mowery Heating, Cooling and Plumbing today. We’ve served homeowners in the Greater Indianapolis area since 1970.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Brownsburg, Indiana and surrounding areas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).
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