As you watch the temperatures rise and your energy bills skyrocket even faster, you may find yourself wondering if there’s a better option to heat and cool your house than your forced-air HVAC unit. Depending on your circumstances, a geothermal heat pump could be the right solution for you, using the energy of the earth itself as a completely renewable resource.
No matter how hot or cold it is outside, the ground temperature remains stable once you get more than a few feet underground, where the temperature reliably remains at about 55 degrees.
While traditional air conditioners use compressors to pump refrigerant that cools the air and traditional heaters burn fuel to warm the air, a geothermal system runs pipes underground. These pipes pump liquid that absorbs the constant temperature and then transfers it to the air in your home.
Geothermal heat pumps are highly efficient and drop your utility costs sharply. You can expect energy costs for heating and cooling to drop by 25 to 50 percent.
One of the biggest downsides of geothermal heating and cooling is the considerable space and effort required to install it. Professionals will need to excavate a large area of your backyard to bury the pipes. However, this work is also becoming more and more efficient by the year, and newer models require less space to get the same result.
A geothermal heat pump will work well in any climate, but it’s most efficient in colder climates.
Geothermal heating and cooling tends to increase your home’s safety by lowering the amount of potentially combustible gases, fumes and carbon monoxide that can enter your house. They’re also quieter than forced-air systems.
Expect to pay between $20,000 and $25,000 for a geothermal heat pump, which is about a third more than you’d pay for a traditional forced-air system. However, geothermal energy is subject to a considerable tax incentive. You can receive a 30 percent Residential Clean Energy Tax Credit for any system installed in the next 10 years, according to Energy Star.
Because geothermal heat pumps have fewer moving parts than traditional forced-air systems, they tend to have a longer lifespan. You can expect 20 to 25 years of service from a new system. The buried liquid loop itself has an even longer lifespan of about 50 years.
Geothermal systems are highly technical and complex systems even by HVAC standards, so make sure you hire a pro with experience in geothermal systems and your type of home. They’ll perform the necessary calculations to recommend the correct system size for you, as well as the most appropriate methods for burying the pipes around your home.
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