Plenty of residents here in Scranton, Pennsylvania, have hired Jim Lamberti Contracting Services, LLC to make their homes geothermal homes. Still suspicious of geothermal heating and cooling yourself? Understanding a bit of the science behind it – and the mechanics as well – may help.
We’ve talked elsewhere about the rewards of geothermal heating and cooling. It’s enough to say here that hardly any other means of maintaining apleasant home environment all year long are as efficient, trustworthy, or ultimately thrifty, especially when you gauge the energy savings.
Here’s how geothermal makes that possible.
Thar’s Gold Heat in Them Thar Hills!
We dig in the earth for precious metals. We dig in the earth for oil. Now, to an unprecedented degree, we’re tapping the earth for a resource no doubt just as valuable to many of us: the energy to heat and cool our homes that doesn’t call for oil.
You see, right beneath the earth’s crust – we’re talking no more than 33,000 feet under our feet – is a layer of magma. This is a molten and semi-molten mixture, principally of silicates, in which temperatures vary from 1300 degrees Fahrenheit to 2400 degrees Fahrenheit and hotter the deeper you go (not that you’d want to go there!). What this does is keep the ground immediately under the earth’s surface at a year-round temperature of between 45 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit. The upshot? Underground temperatures in Scranton (and most places stateside, as it were) are warmer than the ambient air above ground in Winter and cooler than the ambient air above ground in Summer.
Time to Get Pumped!
What geothermal heating and cooling systems do, then, is transfer heat from the ground to your home or heat from your home to the ground, in accordance with the season. Either way, your home is maintained at an optimal temperature to keep you and your family in comfort month after month.
The apparatus that executes the transfer is a geothermal heat pump. It continuously circulates water or some solution (usually antifreeze) between your home and loops of piping (usually fashioned of polyethylene, high-density polyethylene, PVC, or CPVC) placed in the ground. In Winter, the liquid is cold when it enters the ground. As it travels through the loops, it takes in heat from the earth and is returned to your home warm. In Summer, the process is reversed: warm liquid enters the loops, where it takes in the cooler ground temperatures before it’s returned to your home. Want details? You’ll find more comprehensive information on ground loops here.
The key point is that geothermal heating and cooling systems don’t produce energy. They aren’t like central heating systems, which generate heat themselves. Instead, geothermal systems heat and cool your home by mobilizing the energy already abundantly available beneath the earth’s surface. That’s why geothermal systems don’t only run quieter but also prove much more dependable, need less maintenance, have far longer lifespans, and are more environmentally friendly than old-school HVACs. That’s also why, in the end, you’ll save a great deal more more money by going geothermal.
Curious now? See Jim Lamberti Contracting Services, LLC, your Scranton geothermal heating and cooling specialist, today.