Ground Loop Sizing and Groundwater Levels: Important components of a geothermal heating and cooling system

Often during the hot summer months, New Jersey and Pennsylvania may go without rain for a period of time, creating drought conditions. While the brown grass is an obvious sign that the ground is dry, underground water levels are also subsiding. Lowered underground water levels affect the steady underground temperatures your geothermal heating and cooling system depend on to keep your home cool during the summer. Homeowners with horizontal loops which are not buried deep into the ground and those with inappropriately sized systems may experience cooling troubles during these dry periods.

When systems are undersized, there aren’t enough loops to exchange heat in the ground, which hurts during these dry times. More loops could be placed, but this investment would be pretty great just to solve a problem that only affects a home during extreme weather periods that aren’t typical.

Luckily, extreme droughts don’t seem to damage geothermal heating and cooling systems- they only affect their power to sufficiently cool the home. Your system has controls which will shut down if conditions that are too extreme for operation are detected. If this happens, simply call the installer to come check components such as water flow and refrigerant levels to ensure the system is in good condition.

Picking a quality geothermal heating and cooling system installer to do your initial installation and system design can help you combat the possibility of being affected during times of drought. The qualified installers at Smith Sustainable Design take these factors into consideration when designing your system to ensure you’ll receive optimal cooling when you need it. We’ll discuss the proper placement of ground loops and whether.