Geothermal

• Homeowners receive superior energy ratings
• Deliver comfortable air year-round, regardless of the temperature outdoors
• Low operating costs
• Energy efficient
• Clean
• Environmentally friendly
• Requires lower maintenance than traditional heating/cooling systems
• Quiet and compact

Ground-source heat pumps have been installed for more than 30 years and are recognized as one of the most highly efficient heating-cooling systems available today.

“Geothermal heat pump technology offers a renewable energy solution that’s right for almost any home,” said Bruce Ritchey, president and chief executive officer of Water Furnace (Fort Wayne, Ind.). “Thermal energy of sufficient temperatures anywhere in the United States and Canada is harvested from the earth and transferred into buildings by a heat pump that provides heating and cooling.” Installation requires an acre or more of land, or the ability to drill holes or tap an existing water source (pond or lake).

A geothermal unit works like a conventional heat pump to cool a home in the summer and heat it in the winter. The key difference between an air-source heat pump (which can’t heat a home efficiently when outdoor temperatures dip below 30 degrees F) and a geothermal heat pump is that the geothermal unit harvests stable and renewable heat from beneath the earth’s surface. In the summertime, the cycle is reversed and heat is released into the ground. As a result, a geothermal unit saves energy, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions and can cut utility bills by up to 70 percent.