Shine Energy Systems Inc. Company Blog

Shine Energy Systems Inc. Company Blog

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Know your products

In the geothermal industry, it is not uncommon for a supplier to make a product that is then re-sold under the banner of another company. Simply asking your installer who makes the product, especially when it comes to heat pumps, will help ensure you know who all is responsible for your product warranty.

You also have the ability to do some background reading on your recommended heat pump. Most suppliers have all their supplied technical information available over the internet. Like buying a car, don't hesitate to do some background reading on your recommended system. If your installer does not leave you with operational procedures (or you buy a home with an existing system), you can print out a copy and leave near your system to help you remember recommended maintenance schedules, troubleshoot, and assist in efficient operation.

Monday, December 4, 2006

Design

It is important to ensure your geothermal system is properly designed prior to installation. Some things to look for from your contractor are a heat loss/gain calculation on your home to assess the requirements for your household. From this an appropriately sized system can be designed. Further variables such as available land space, local soil types, distance to groundwater, all need to be factored in to ensuring your home will have a properly sized system. There is nothing wrong with asking your engineer or contractor to provide you with these details. If anything, these records help in future troubleshooting should it be required.

Pricing

Pricing

I did some blog searching out of curiosity and there are a few common misconceptions on geothermal systems for residential homes. Often, the most common perspectives focus on the economics. It is important when pricing a geothermal system to understand that any conventional HVAC system also has associated costs - they are not free, but built in to the costs of your home when purchased. As a made up example, a geothermal system (ground loop, heat pump, desuperheater, and so forth) may cost you $16,000 to put in to a small home. At the same time your conventional forced air gas furnace system may cost you $8000. So it is the difference in the costs that are the important economics to consider when figuring out the payback period and so forth.

Also keep in mind there are many externalities (benefits) associated with geothermal systems that are difficult to put a dollar value on. They include:

  • greenhouse gas reduction
  • safe (no combustion)
  • improved air quality
  • quiet operation

Definitions

Ground Source Heat Pump Terminology

The field in which I practice has many different names for our product that can lead to some confusion. They all are used to refer to the same appliance (the first two are the most common).

  1. Ground-source heat pump
  2. Geothermal heat pump
  3. Water-source heat pump
  4. Well-water heat pump
  5. Direct-expansion heat pump
  6. Geo-exchange heat pump
  7. Groundwater heat pump
  8. Earth-coupled heat pump
  9. Ground-coupled heat pump
  10. Open-loop heat pump
  11. Closed-loop heat pump
(Brumbaugh, J.E., HVAC Fundamentals, 4th ed., Audel, 2004, p.481)