If you’re tired of high cooling and heating bills, consider a geothermal system. These are among the highest-efficiency HVAC systems. They harvest the energy stored underground using a buried loop field (horizontal or vertical), which provides consistent and dependable conditioning for your home. Ground-source heat pumps (GHPs) exchange heat with the ground instead of the air, which increases their efficiency substantially.
In the summer, the geothermal system removes heat from your home and rejects it underground, and in the winter, it extracts stored underground heat and sends it indoors. The stable thermal environment in which these systems operate contributes to their remarkable efficiency. Besides high-efficiency cooling and heating, GHPs offer these benefits:
- Durability. The underground loop field can last up to 50 years and the indoor blower 25 years or more with routine maintenance. These systems don’t use an outdoor condenser, which makes your yard quieter and simplifies maintenance.
- Low energy consumption. Because the energy transfer takes place in stable underground temperatures, the GHP doesn’t encounter the same temperature swings that other conditioning systems do. These systems offer up to 70 percent in energy savings over their lifetime. The Air Force Institute of Technology estimates that it should take less than eight years to recoup your costs for purchasing and installing a geothermal system. GHPs are one of the few HVAC systems that pay for themselves over time.
- Environmentally friendly. Because they use no fuel for heating, a GHP doesn’t leave the carbon footprint of systems that burn fossil fuels. Since they use less electricity, they cut greenhouse gas emissions associated with generating electricity as well.
- Tax credits. If you install a qualifying GHP through the end of 2016, you can take advantage of a generous federal tax credit of 30 percent of the cost of the system, including labor and installation. Unlike other energy tax credits, this one has no upward cap on the amount you can deduct.
Geothermal systems offer solid performance, high efficiency, durability and a generous tax credit. If you’d like to learn more about them, contact Ace Hardware Home Services. We’ve provided top-notch HVAC services for the Dayton area since 1978.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Dayton, Ohio about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about geothermal systems and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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