Geothermal air conditioning can offer significant savings while keeping your home at a comfortable temperature this summer. A few feet below the surface, the ground remains at a nearly constant moderate temperature. A geothermal air conditioner uses this constant temperature to provide cooling at efficiencies that are unmatched by traditional systems. To understand how, it is necessary to understand the differences in how they work.
How traditional air conditioning works
Traditional air conditioning uses a refrigeration system to transfer heat from inside the home to the exterior air. Refrigerant in the interior evaporation coils extracts heat from the home’s air. This refrigerant is then passed through a compressor and on to the condensing coils where the heat energy is expelled into the outdoor air.
How geothermal air conditioning works
A geothermal air conditioner uses a similar refrigerant system, but it expels the heat into the ground. It accomplishes this by transferring the heat from the refrigeration system to water contained in a loop of pipes. As the water is circulated through the subterranean loop of pipes, the heat energy is dissipated into the ground. Many geothermal air conditioners also double as water heaters by using some of the extracted heat to warm water for use in your home.
Advantages of geothermal
Geothermal air conditioning is so much more efficient because its refrigeration system has to work less. The main reason for this is that it always has a source of cool temperatures to expel its heat into. Traditional air conditioning becomes less efficient as the temperature goes up because the warmer air around its condensation coil makes expelling heat more difficult.
A geothermal heat pump can efficiently perform other duties as well. In addition to the previously mentioned ability to cheaply provide hot water for your home, a geothermal system can provide super-efficient heating in the winter by extracting heat from the ground and bringing it inside.
If you have any further questions about geothermal air conditioning and heating, please contact us at Paschal Heat, Air & Geothermal. We’ve been providing quality service to homeowners in northwest Arkansas for more than 45 years.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Northwest Arkansas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about geothermal air conditioning and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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