Geothermal home comfort systems are growing more popular every year thanks to their highly efficient, reliable performance and nearly unmatched longevity. A well-installed geothermal system can last for more the 50 years, and no matter the outdoor temperature, they return a steady level of heating or cooling that uses far less power than standard air-source heat pumps.
Some homeowners, however, are not even aware that geothermal systems can provide both heating and cooling, the way that standard heat pumps can. Because geothermal power is associated with heat (“thermal” is right in the name), people often don’t consider that they can offer comfort through cooling every bit as effective as their comfort through heat.
We’ll offer you a short explanation for how a geothermal system cools down a home during summer.
For more information about geothermal cooling in Jacksonville, FL, call Touchstone Heating and Air Inc., where we’ve kept homes in North Central Florida comfortable since 1998.
The basics of geothermal cooling
Geothermal home comfort systems are heat pumps: they move heat from one location and place it in another through the circulation of refrigerant. An indoor coil serves as either the evaporator (removing heat from the interior air) or condenser (releasing heat to the interior air), while a series of ground loops buried at least 6 feet deep in the earth handle the other half of the heat exchange process. Unlike air-source heat pumps, geothermal systems use water rather than Freon as the refrigerant they circulate.
When a geothermal heat pump is in heating mode, the ground loops move heat from the ground and release it inside. Because the temperature of the earth at that depth remains steady around 55°F regardless of the surface conditions, the heat pump has a reliable source of heat. But it can reverse this process and use the earth as a place to deposit heat as well, making use of the same steady temperature. When the system switches to cooling mode, heat is taken from a home and placed into the earth. Thanks to the reliably cool underground temperature, a heat pump will never have trouble cooling down a house on a hot summer day.
Find out if geothermal is right for you
If there’s one drawback to geothermal heat pumps, it’s that they will not work for every property: a home needs sufficient space for the loops and the right kind of soil. However, you may be surprised to find out that most homes will permit geothermal heat pumps.
Call our heating and cooling specialists at Touchstone Heating and Air Inc. today and schedule an appointment to find out if geothermal cooling in Jacksonville, FL is a great year round comfort solution for your household.