Picture living in a home where the temperature is always comfortable, and the heating and cooling system is nowhere in sight. The system performs efficiently without requiring a lot of repairs and regular maintenance. The air in your house always smells fresh, and you can hear the wind rustling through the leaves. Sounds comfortable, doesn’t it?
You can make this vision a reality with a geothermal heating and cooling system. Let’s see how geothermal systems work to provide comfortable heating and cooling as needed.
5 Things to Know About Geothermal Systems
1. They Are Made of Buried Systems of Pipes
A geothermal system has several components. It has an indoor handling unit that accompanies a buried system of pipes. This system is called the “earth loop,” which benefits from the constant temperatures 4 to 6 feet below the ground to provide energy. Based on your property’s location, the earth loop may either be buried horizontally or vertically.
2. They Help Reduce the Environmental Impact of Heating and Cooling
A geothermal heating and cooling system can take out four times more kilowatt-hours of consumption per dollar spent from the electrical grid than wind or solar power add to the electrical grid. While solar and wind technologies play an important role in reducing heating and cooling systems’ environmental impact, geothermal is often the most cost-effective way. This is because the system does not consume any fossil fuels and boasts highly efficient electricity use.
3. There Three Main Types of Geothermal Systems
To understand how geothermal systems work, you need to know the three types of systems:
–Closed-Loop System
A close-looped system consists of a series of underground pipes filled with a fluid that transfers geothermal energy to the heat pump. You can set this system up in a vertical or horizontal arrangement. The vertical arrangement is the most common form of a geothermal heat system, as it requires less outdoor space. The horizontal arrangement requires continuous piping for the closed-loop system and can reduce frontend costs as it does not require a drilling rig.
–Open-Loop System
An open-loop system uses groundwater as its primary heat source. Rather than circulating fluid in closed pipes, an open-loop system pumps water directly to the heat pump to transfer the geothermal energy.
–Lake/Pond Hybrid System
A lake/pond hybrid system is an open-loop system that uses water from a pond or a lake to provide geothermal energy for heating and cooling. This pond or lake water is connected with a heat pump that transfers geothermal energy.
4. They Help Save Money
Even though the cost of installing geothermal heat pumps is high because of excavation and drilling expenses, you can quickly compensate for the additional costs because of the system’s high efficiency. You can gain up to 50% savings with geothermal systems in Lexington, SC, over conventional heating and cooling systems. In this way, you can recover the additional capital costs from installation in less than five years. Geothermal heating and cooling systems contain few moving components and do not take up a lot of space, which means they have lower maintenance costs.
5. They Don’t Wear Out Quickly
The earth loops in a geothermal system can serve you for decades. The equipment used to exchange heat typically lasts for generations since it is protected indoors. When the time comes to replace it, the expense is less than putting in an entire new geothermal system. Typically, a geothermal system can last 30 years if used properly.
Intrigued by how geothermal systems work? Get in touch with Fulmer Heating and Cooling in Lexington, SC. We provide the best geothermal heating and cooling services in Columbia, SC.