1. Oversizing equipment.

Oversizing equipment is common not only with geothermal heat pumps, but also in more conventional equipment like air conditioners.

Some contractors still use rules of thumb for sizing equipment, and then add a large “safety factor” to ensure that the equipment is big enough for the job.

Not only do heat pumps use more energy than necessary when oversized, but oversizing leads to short-cycling of on and off, which wears equipment down much faster, just like starting and stopping a car.

Also, because oversized equipment has shorter run-times, you don’t get the same amount of filtration and air circulation throughout your house, which can lead to bigger temperature variations in your Virginia Beach home.

Your Virginia Beach HVAC and geothermal specialist will provide you with a detailed ACCA Manual J heating and cooling load calculation for your home based on your insulation, windows, and other details.

2. Improper distribution system.

Many Virginia Beach homeowners spend a premium for a geothermal heat pump, only to integrate it with a lousy duct system or poorly designed radiant system. This is like putting bald tires on a brand new car.

The best geothermal heat pump in the world cannot make an improperly designed air duct system more quiet or comfortable. Likewise, when a radiant system is not optimized to keep floor temperatures low, much of the efficiency of ground source heat pumps is lost.

Residential duct systems should be designed in accordance with the ACCA Manual D.

3. Wrong pump for the job.

The circulator pump is what moves water through the ground and into the heat pump itself. The pump must have enough power to overcome all of the friction from the piping and fittings, as well as be able to overcome the pressure drop of the heat pump.

If the pump is sized to small, there will not be adequate water flow through the heat pump, potentially causing malfunctions or hurt the unit efficiency. On the other hand, an oversized circulator will use far more electricity than necessary. Your Virginia Beach HVAC contractor will select a pump based on a head loss calculation and the specific heat pump.

4. Ground loop sized incorrectly.

The key to a good geothermal system is the ground loop itself. An undersized ground loop is almost impossible to fix and will lead to an inefficient system at best, and a frozen (“slushy”) or overheated ground loop at worst.

At the same time, a grossly oversized ground loop will be prohibitively expensive for little benefit. Never use “rule of thumb” for sizing your ground loop; your Virginia Beach HVAC contractor will take into account the heating and cooling load of the building, soil conductivity and temperature, flow rates, and other factors all into account.

5. Poor coordination.

Depending on the size of the geothermal project, any number of different players may be involved, such as the owner, a general contractor, drillers, HVAC contractors, sheet metal installers, engineers or architects, etc. The more parties that are involved in the project, the more important good communication becomes.

For instance, your Virginia Beach HVAC contractor needs to be aware of any changes that the architects make in the floor coverings to make sure the radiant floor works as designed.

Ideally, one contractor is responsible for all aspects of the geothermal system, including the equipment, ducting, and drilling or trenching. That way, if something goes wrong there is no “finger pointing” and the contractor can work to correct the problem.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_D_Best

f you are looking for a professional Virginia Beach geothermal heating contractor, then please call us today at 757-498-1323 or complete our online request form

How does a Geothermal Heat Pump get the heat from the ground? The heat pump utilizes a loop of refrigerant sucked through a vapor compressed refrigeration cycle moving heat either in or out. The source of heat is actually much more stable and continuing then air based heat which tends to be less controlled. The other benefit is that Geothermal Heat pumps can also be used to pump the heat out of your house for instant cooling during hot weather. Geothermal heat pumps are also more economically friendly and can reduce the effects of pollution, electricity, and global warming.

What are the different kinds of Geothermal Heat Pumps? So far some of the different types of geothermal heat pumps in existence are; Ground Exchange, Direct Exchange, closed loop, vertical, horizontal, pond, open loop, and finally standing column well.

o Ground Exchange – This type of heat pump uses the grounds current heat and exchanges it with the temperatures in your home. If you plan to have a ground sourced heat pump then you will need a heat exchanger which sits against either ground or ground water to make the pump function properly.

o Direct Exchange – Instead of using a circulating refrigerant the direct exchange geothermal heat pump works by using a SINGLE loop refrigerant in direct thermal contact with the ground.

o Closed loop – The typical system uses two loops on the ground side and one loop located in the appliance cabinet which exchanges temperatures with the loop which is pulling the temperatures from the ground. Closed loop systems have much longer and larger pipes implemented into the ground for better accuracy and also have an extra loop located in between the refrigerant loop and the water loop, pumping in both loops.

Closed loops come in two different types themselves one being the vertical closed loop and the other is the horizontal closed loop. The difference between the two being the vertical closed pump has pipes which run vertical through the ground while the horizontal closed loops have pipes running horizontally through the ground.

o Pond – Pond based heat pumps are not commonly used due to the need to be close to an external source of water. Pond based heat pumps are more preferred and recommended for people who want to use a pump but have bad quality water, or a low heat source currently containable by a standard heat pump. The Pond based heat pump gets its name from the fact that the loop dragging in the heat is located underneath a large body of water, for example a pond.

o Open Loop – An open loop is a heat pump which draws in water from an external source stores it in the main refrigerant where heat is extracted from the water source and the water is then returned to the external source.

o Standing column well – A standing column well heat pump is much like an open loop heat pump except it is designed to pull in water from deep within a well and exchange it for heat in the main refrigerant where it is then returned back into the well while traveling down it exchanges heat with the bedrock.

How does a geothermal heat pump work in large buildings?

A geothermal heat pump works in all different ways each make varying depending on its best function for what it is replacing. For example a heat pump moves anywhere in between three and five times faster than the heat or electricity in which it consumes it is actually outputting more energy than it is inputting this causes the efficiency of thermals to exceed anywhere between 100 and 200 percent. While your average electric device will typically never exceed 100%. This proving that a geothermal heat pump will always exceed the performance of the electric device it is equivalently designed against for a specific building or structures size.

What is the environmental impact of geothermal heat pumps?

The impact is to be frank very positive, producing less greenhouse gases, and built to be biodegradable and non toxic in the external sources. But the negative side is that the refrigerant system uses a type of refrigerant which is actually a cause of depleting the ozone layer. This refrigerant is called chlorodiflouromethane, it is harmless when used properly but leaks can cause the ozone layer to deplete. But don’t worry this product has been favored out and is being replaced with a more environmentally safe product.

So if you have decided that a heat pump is right for your Suffolk home give the professionals at Hawkins Heating and Air Conditioning a call and let them assist you in getting your new heat pump system installed.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_J_Owen

If you are looking for a professional Virginia Beach geothermal heating contractor, then please call us today at 757-498-1323 or complete our online request form

What are the benefits?

The chief benefit of using this type of heating system is energy conservation. In times when “going green” is the order of the day, this benefit is not to be taken lightly. Geothermal heating systems use up to 25% to 50% less electricity than conventional heating or cooling systems. Basically, this means that a geothermal heat pump uses one unit of electricity to extract three units of heat from the earth.

This natural form of heating can also help improve humidity control by maintaining about 50% relative indoor humidity, making geothermal heat pumps very helpful in humid climates.

Because these systems have no outdoor condensing units, like air conditioners have, you don’t have to worry about a noisy apparatus outside your home.

How Does it Work?

To understand how this type of heating system works, it’s important to understand its parts. A regular heat pump has an outdoor unit called condenser and an indoor unit that’s called an evaporator coil. A material called a refrigerant transports the heat from one area to another. When compressed, it is a high temperature, high-pressure liquid. If it is allowed to expand, it transforms into a low temperature, low pressure gas. The gas then absorbs heat.

In the winter a regular heat pump system extracts heat from outdoor air and transfers it inside where it is circulated through your home’s duct-work by a fan.

Geothermal heat pumps are built on the same basic premise as regular heat pumps. The difference is that the geothermal type draws heat from the earth instead of from outdoor air. The heat from the earth is considered to be stable and even. In addition to providing heating for your home, this type of energy can also provide air conditioning and in most cases, hot water.

These heat pumps move heat from the earth into your house in the winter, and pull the heat from your home in the summer and move it into the ground by using a series of pipes. This series of pipes is called a “loop.” The loop is installed under the surface of the ground. Fluid travels through the loop, collecting heat from the ground (in the winter) and carries it to the house. There, an electrically driven compressor and a heat exchanger condense the Earth’s heat and discharge it inside the house at a higher temperature. Ductwork then disperses the heat to different rooms.

With air conditioning, the technique is reversed. The underground loop draws out surplus heat from the house and allows it to be absorbed by the Earth where it is then stored. The system cools your home in the same way that a refrigerator keeps your food cold – by pulling heat from the inside, not by blowing in cold air. Talk to a professional HVAC contractor about all of the benefits and to get started today.

Ground source heat pumps work in a similar manner as air source heat pumps, minus the high cost. Atypical household can save $1500 a year or more. This can give most systems a payback period of three to five years. GSHP’s are more than three times as efficient as the most efficient fossil fuel furnace. By moving heat that already exists in the earth, instead of burning a combustible fuel, GSHP’s deliver three units of energy for every one unit used to power the heat-pump system.

Ground source heat pumps work by circulating water or a water/antifreeze solution through a closed loop of polyethylene pipe that is buried in the ground or set closed and open loop systems beneath the water. GSHP systems can be lad out in different orientations, depending on the situation. A closed loop system, the most popular, can be laid out either vertically in 50 -250 foot deep holes drilled like a well, or horizontally in 3-6 foot deep trenches. The less common open loop system circulates a constant source of ground water and dispels the water back to its origin, such as a stream, well, or pond.

The principle action of a heat pump moves heat from lower temperature location to a higher temperature location. This principle can be witnessed in an air conditioning window unit, or air source heat pump, where cold air is blown into the house and warm air is released out of the back of the unit. A ground source heat pump works in a similar manner, except that its heat source is the warmth of the earth. The process of elevating low-temperature heat to over 100 degrees F and transferring it indoors involves a cycle of evaporation, compression, condensation and expansion. A refrigerant, like freon, is used as a heat-transfer medium which circulates within the heat pump.