Geothermals Top 10 Takeaways


If your knowledge of geothermal heating and cooling is next to nil, you ought to know this, at least – especially if you’re considering redoing your current Alaska home’s HVAC system or wondering what to install in the new home you’re building:
  1. Geothermal HVAC systems are among the most environmentally friendly available. Their simple technology channels subterranean temperatures to supply your Alaska home with winter heat and summer cooling. Thus, your home and the earth are always in sync, fused together in a singular – and singularly compatible – home-earth symbiosis. Sound a bit too grandiose? All it means is that, with geothermal heating and cooling, your home isn’t upending the natural order of things. Instead, it’s becoming a “nicer” part of the environment.
  2. Geothermal HVAC systems pass muster as “renewable energy technology.” Sure, they run off of electricity. But they don’t need much of it for all the reward you get. Just one unit of electricity can convey up to five units of natural heating or cooling from the earth to your home.
  3. Geothermal HVAC systems are far more efficient than solar (photovoltaic) or wind power technologies. Generally speaking, solar and wind technologies, whatever the chachet of their “renewability,” consume four times more kilowatt-hours of electricity per dollar spent than geothermal systems.
  4. Geothermal HVAC systems don’t require as much of your yard as you might think. Don’t have much yard space anyway? No revelation there: most home lots in Alaska and elsewhere anymore occupy a comparatively You’ll be relieved to know, however, that the polyethylene piping used for the geothermal earth loops doesn’t have to be buried horizontally. It can be dug in vertically and run as deep as 100 to 400 feet. Almost no above-ground surface is called for at any rate, whether vertical, horizontal, open (well water), or pond loops are installed. Result? You can keep your little patch of paradise a whole lot greener.
  5. Geothermal HVAC systems are amazingly quiet. Every element of a geothermal system is designed and engineered to operate significantly quieter than traditional gas furnaces, heat pumps, or air conditioners. Even better, there’s no outside unit, so you and your neighbors are spared the aggravation of fans, belts, and compressors whirring, whining, and rattling away at all hours!
  6. Geothermal HVAC systems are long-term heating and cooling solutions, designed to last for generations. Present-day geothermal technology, manufacturing guidelines, and installation procedures insure ground loops of exceptional longevity and heat-exchange equipment that will continue working impeccably for decades. It helps, naturally, that the heat-exchange equipment is protected indoors. At least, when it does ultimately need repairing or replacing, you won’t likely be redoing the ground, well, or pond loops along with it. So replacement costs can be kept down.
  7. Geothermal HVAC systems don’t need much maintenance at all. The earth loops, as noted, are designed to endure for generations, and when properly buried, will do so without any need for intervention. Fans, compressors, and pumps, kept safe indoors from weather extremes, require only sporadic scrutiny as well as periodic filter changes and a coil cleaning once a year.
  8. Geothermal HVAC systems are as adept at cooling as they are at heating. The old notion that geothermal HVAC systems don’t cool as well as they heat has been pretty much laid to rested by ongoing advances in the manufacture of geothermal technology.
  9. Geothermal HVAC systems can be customized to multitask. Okay, so you’ve decided you want to heat your home’s water geothermally. But can a geothermal system provide ambient heat for your home as well? And what if you have a swimming pool? Relax. Today’s systems can handle it all and handle it all at once, with no favoring of one task over another.
  10. Geothermal HVAC systems are becoming a lot more affordable – even when not subsidized by federal and local tax incentives. Congress has yet to reinstitute federal tax credits for geothermal heating and cooling that ended December 31, 2016. That said, a number of factors – material and technological advances, new installation practices, and increased competition in the marketplace, for the most part – are helping to bring geothermal solutions more in line with the cost of traditional heating and cooling methods.
 
Talk with the geothermal specialists at Energy Efficiency Associates today. They’ll clearly outline the rewards of geothermal heating and cooling so you can make the wisest decision for your Alaska home.
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