How do geothermal heating and cooling systems work?

A geothermal heating and cooling system is a natural way to heat and cool your home or business. By accessing pockets of stable temperatures below the Earth’s surface, the Earth’s temperatures are used to provide comfortable indoor temperatures. There is no need to burn fossil fuels to heat your home as with a gas furnace, which makes a geothermal system an energy-efficient and environmentally safe way to heat and cool your home. Let’s take a closer look at how they work.

While the temperature outdoors changes day to day, the temperatures below ground remain fairly consistent all year. A geothermal heating and cooling system taps into the underground temperatures below your home or business to bring heat or cooling up into your structure. To do this, a network of underground piping, often referred to as the “earth loop,” is used in conjunction with other equipment to make use of the Earth’s energy.

Geothermal heating and cooling systems are comprised of two key elements; the earth loop and the heat pump. The earth loop and a heat pump work together to utilize underground energy for heating and cooling. The system’s earth loop is filled with fluid which circulates through the pipes. This fluid absorbs the stored energy below ground and carries it inside. The heat pump works to distribute this energy indoors, functioning differently depending on the season.

In the winter, the heat pump compresses the heat gathered below ground to a higher temperature, and distributes this heat throughout the structure. In the summer, the heat pump works to extract warm air from inside. It then sends these warm temperatures through the earth loop back into the Earth. The earth loop deposits this energy into the cooler, below-ground space. Because geothermal heating and cooling systems have the ability to function like a heater, and as an air conditioner, these systems are ideal for use all year.

A geothermal heating and cooling system allows your home or business to utilize natural energy found underground to provide for your heating and cooling needs. By connecting your home or business to an underground energy source, you’ll have access to a clean, and affordable energy source. They burn no fossil fuels, which allow them to produce three to four times as many units of energy for every unit of power used by the system. To learn more about how geothermal heating and cooling systems can work for your home or business, contact Smith Sustainable Design.