Tuckers Air Conditioning, Heating & Plumbing Blog: Posts Tagged ‘Geothermal Loops’

Geothermal Tip: Geothermal Heating Components

Monday, February 18th, 2013

Tuckers Air Conditioning & Heating offers geothermal heating services in Gaithersburg and the surrounding areas. Geothermal heating systems are a cost-effective and environmentally-friendly way to heat your home in the winter, and they can be used to cool your home the rest of the year. They utilize the constant year-round underground temperatures and a heat pump to providing heating and AC.

Understanding the basic components of a geothermal heating system can help you decide whether or not this is the right heating system for your home and your budget. We’ve put together a description of some of the basic components for you in this blog post. Call us if you have further questions.

Horizontal and Vertical Loop Fields

The first consideration you need to take into account is whether or not you want to install vertical or horizontal loop fields. Loops simply refer to the underground pipes that contain a refrigerant and water mixture. If you have a larger property, you can install horizontal loop, which can be installed by using a back hoe. However, if you have a limited amount of yard space, drilling may be required to bury the vertical loop closer to your home.

Geothermal Heat Pump

The loop fields are connected to a heat pump that uses a compressor—just like air source heat pumps—to heat or cool your home depending on the season. The heat pump requires very little energy since it is transferring the heat from the ground, which remains at a constant 55 degrees all year long. A small amount of electricity is used to heat this up to higher temperatures to be distributed to the living spaces of your home. You can also install a geothermal water heater that uses the loop fields in the same way to heat the water in your home.

While the loop fields and heat pump are the two basic components, there are many other smaller components involved that provide even greater energy savings. Call the geothermal experts at Tuckers Air Conditioning & Heating  at  301-670-0034 for all your geothermal heating needs if you live in Chevy Chase, MD or the surrounding areas.

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