"How much heat can a heat pump pump, if a heat pump could pump heat"? . . . from one of our commercials used in the 1960's to advertise a new type of heating system.

Water Source (Geothermal) Heat Pumps

When we installed our first heat pumps, we spent as much time explaining how it worked as we did to convince people to install one. Today, almost everybody knows about heat pumps. They may not know exactly how they work but then, how many people know how pictures and voices are transmitted over wires or through the air (wireless) but that doesn't stop us from enjoying them.

Most people know that heat pumps heat and cool and are vaguely aware that it moves (or pumps) heat from one location to another. Fewer people know that there are two distinct types of heat pumps.

The most familiar is known as an air source (air-to-air) pump. In the cooling mode, it functions as a conventional air conditioner by extracting heat from the air within a structure and discharging it to the outside. In the heating mode, you may think of it as a reverse air conditioner as it extracts heat from the outside air and brings it inside.

The first question most people ask is "how can you get enough heat from 40 degree air to heat a house? Stop and think about it, if you remove 10 degrees of air from the outside air, the outside air is now 30 degrees and you have 10 degrees of heat to warm the inside. That's oversimplified of course, because it is the "phase change" that occurs with a compressor and refrigerant that makes the process viable.

Heat pumps, as great as they are, have limitations. Parenthetically if there was a perfect type of heating and cooling system, everyone would be using that type and there would be no need for the others. The most serious limitation to an air source heat pump is the drop in efficiency as outside temperatures rise in the summer and drop in the winter. And because of the drop in efficiency, the unit must work harder to maintain desired temperatures.

Enter a second type of heat pump. Just as the air to air type utilizes the heat extraction technology to extract heat from the air, a water source (geothermal) unit extracts it's heat from water rather than air, usually from wells or ponds.

There are two significant differences in the two systems. First, water has a much higher specific heat content, about one BTU per pound whereas the specific heat content of air is only about .018 BTU per cu. ft. (there is 3472 times more heat stored in a cu. ft. of water than in a cu. ft. of air).

The second major difference in air and water source heat pumps is the significant increase in efficiency. Whereas fluctuating outside air temperatures has a direct effect on air to air heat pump efficiencies, the near constant temperature of the earth just a few feet below the surface translates into substantial savings in your utility bill.

There is of course much more to be said about water source heat pumps than this brief thumbnail explanation. To find out how you can tap the relatively constant temperature of the earth a few feet underground for one of the most efficient ways to heat and cool your home and save you money every month, use our unique way to schedule an appointment with one of our qualified sales representatives. Take the first step . . . click here, it's fast, easy and simple.