Ground Loop Heat Pump
Published Sunday March 3, 2013: Updated January 3, 2015
Ground Loop Heat Pump
On the same day that the Palace Geothermal crew was finishing up their work outside, a second crew from Utah Geothermal
removed our old furnace, air conditioner and installed the new geothermal heat pump.
Our house no longer needs this 5 ton, 13 SEER, air conditioning unit.
Our house no longer needs this 135000 BTU, 80% efficient, natural gas furnace either.
Or this 55% efficient 40,000 BTU gas water heater (it will be replaced with an electric one, supplemented by the heat pump).
ClimateMaster Tranquility 30 geothermal heat pump: COP 4.8, SEER 29
It replaces both the original furnace and the air conditioner. It also supplements domestic water heating needs. It ties directly into the existing forced air ducts of our house. In this manner it is able to provide heat, air conditioning and ventilation.
The lower set of black pipes (in the above picture) connect to the ground loops. The upper set of pipes run to the domestic, electric hot water heater, supplementing its heating ability with up to 18700 BTUs of nearly free energy.
A New electric hot water heater and geothermal heat pump.
We replaced the gas water heater as part of our goal to go completely off of natural gas and run everything on 100% solar power.
A super insulated hot water heater. This is not a requirement for a geothermal heat pump but is part of an ongoing experiment that I am conducting.
R-19 fiberglass insulation wrapped around and on top of the tank followed by R-3 of foam insulation. This keeps the water hot all day and reduces standby losses by 75%.
Both crews (Palace and Utah Geothermal) did an fantastic job. I am a very happy customer.
The exhaust chimney is now completely unused. Don't let your Chimney be lonely this year. Unless of course, you don't believe that inanimate objects have feelings and you want to save money on your energy bills.
Update: 8/19/2014
We went with the Tranquility 30 heat pump. While I am now completely envious of the newer Trilogy 45, I am happy that innovation continues to ramp up efficiency and increase the comfort in our homes.
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Update 1/3/2014: Check out this video tour of our ground-loop heat-pump.