When you need to replace your furnace or air conditioner with something far more efficient, geothermal’s can be an ideal solution for your Southwest Ohio home. A geothermal heat pump (GHP) uses the stored energy underground to harvest heat in the winter and deposit heat from your home in the summer.
Geothermal systems use underground loops carrying a water/anti-freeze mixture to transfer heat back and forth between the ground (or water) and your home. The more standard air-source heat pump is an energy-efficient heating system until temperatures fall into the teens, when it begins to struggle to keep your home warm. A geothermal system solves that problem by using the relatively constant temperatures a few feet beneath the ground surface.
Winters in Ohio can be exceptionally cold, but geothermal’s ideal for producing reliable, cheap and comfortable heating. Regardless of type, heat pumps use no fuel, other than electricity, to produce heat. An air-source system can produce three times the heat from one unit of electricity. geothermal systems can put out five to six times more heat per unit of energy.
The federal government is offering a tax credit for homeowners who install a geothermal system through the end of 2016. The credit covers 30 percent of the cost of the geothermal heat pump and its installation. The tax credit helps bring the cost of installing a geothermal system into a range of affordability for many homeowners. Otherwise, the installation cost is higher than a standard HVAC system, since the loop field must be dug either horizontally or vertically underground. There is no cap on the credit, as long as the geothermal system meets energy-efficiency guidelines.
In the past, the size of the yard was a factor in the suitability of a geothermal system, but now geothermal’s ideal in even small yards, since the loop field can be installed vertically. This type of installation can also preserve your landscaping. The loop field can last 50 years or longer, so once it’s underground, there’s little chance that you’ll have to disturb the area where the pipes are placed. The indoor air handler may last up to 25 years with routine maintenance.
If you’d like to learn more about geothermal’s ideal benefits, contact Ace Hardware Home Services, Inc. We’ve provided quality HVAC services in 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 and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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