Air-source heat pumps or ground-source heat pumps

April 7, 2019 by Sponsored Content

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By Kyle Field

To decarbonize their homes, people around the world are looking for alternatives to furnaces running on natural gas, propane or oil. Electric heat pumps draw heat from the air or the ground to heat or cool the interior.

The elimination of fuels saves money and purifies the air of your home. No combustion at home also means that exhaust gases do not circulate in the daily air. Clean air at home is one of the big advantages of switching to a heat pump system.

What is the difference between air source heat pumps and geothermal heat pumps?

In the world of heat pumps, there are two major technologies that work in a similar way but come from very different sources. These two options are air heat pumps (ASHP) and geothermal heat pumps (GSHP).

ASHPs use ambient air outside a home. They extract the heat from the air, compress it and push it into the inner ducts. In cold climates, the varying temperatures of the outside air complicate things.

Geothermal systems, for their part, drill under the frost layer of the earth to use the more uniform thermal energy underground.

Both systems use the same central heat pump technology, but air-source heat pumps need to work harder to extract the small amount of heat in the ambient air when temperatures fall below zero.

Geothermal heat pumps draw their heat from a much more stable source. As such, they are much more efficient for heating a home during the coldest winters, regardless of the temperature of the air falling outside.

Air heat pumps

Let's take a closer look at air-source heat pumps. These units are more used because homeowners are looking for alternatives to heating their homes using natural gas or other hydrocarbon-based fuels. They work better in more moderate climates.

ASHs come in many varieties and can be installed using existing ducts in a house or in a configuration without mini-split ducts. A mini-split system means that you will have a central condenser installed as well as wall units in every room you want to cool or heat.

Whatever the configuration inside the house, the air source heat pumps start with a heat exchanger placed outside the house. The exchanger extracts heat or cold from the outside air and transfers it into the house via an internal system.

Geothermal heat pumps

Geothermal heat pumps, such as those used in modern residential geothermal systems, have been in use since the 1940s. These systems use the earth itself as a heat sink by digging under surface temperatures, which can reach a depth of minus 8 feet in the United States.

Below the frost layer, the earth maintains an almost constant temperature around 55 degrees Fahrenheit. This forms the basis of a predictable geothermal heating and cooling system.

With a geothermal energy system, a closed loop pipe is laid horizontally or vertically in the floor surrounding a house. Then, water or another liquid circulates inside the pipes through the stable temperature of the earth, collecting this thermal energy.

The liquid brings the underground heat back into the heat pump inside the house. The heat pump then transfers the heat into the air of the house, heating it without burning fuel.

In summer, the heat pump removes hot air from your home and releases it into the ground through the same closed-loop pipes. Then, the colder water of the surrounding land is pumped into your home and releases a naturally dehumidified air conditioning.

The surrounding land is an ideal place to draw heat in the winter or to eliminate excess heat in the summer.

The fact that the temperature does not fluctuate much in extremely hot or very cold weather means that the system continues to work well even in extreme temperatures, which allows homeowners to make significant savings on utility bills because it offsets the high cost of fuels and heating in winter. L & # 39; summer.

Advantages and disadvantages of geothermal heat pumps

Air pumps and ground pumps only operate on electricity. They have different advantages and disadvantages, allowing homeowners to find the best solution for their needs.

Geothermal pumps generally save more energy. This is simply due to the use of constant temperatures below the earth's surface, unlike air-source heat pumps using variable air temperatures outside the home.

Pulling energy below the surface of the Earth also means that the system is not affected by bad weather or storms because anything that is not inside is buried underground. Outside the home, no equipment can be damaged or affected by climate change.

The conversion of the air temperature can take more energy than the conversion of the soil temperature. As a result, ASHPs consume more electricity than GSHPs.

On the plus side, ASHP systems may cost less initially and generally give you a better return on your investment in more moderate climates. But they lose their advantage when the outside temperatures drop.

Geothermal heat pumps from Dandelion Energy

Heat pump systems are gaining popularity as homeowners look for ways to reduce their electricity bills.

Geothermal heat pumps have been around for decades. However, Dandelion Energy is innovating by advancing the central heat pump and drilling technology used during installation. These advances make geothermal heat pumps more affordable and easier to install.

Curious to know what Dandelion is doing to improve geothermal geothermal heat pumps? Get more answers to your questions about geothermal and dandelion by visiting their FAQ page, reading more about their blog or contacting them directly.

This article was supported by Dandelion; corporate images

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