"A geothermal heat pump is a water source heat pump that has the ability to use the water circulating in the earth or being pulled from the earth, to go through pipes. You can get about 60-75 percent of your heat from the earth. Then, all you have to pay for is the other 25-30 percent. Water heating source equipment will operate 25 percent more economically than an air source will, so that would be the advantage," Peterson says.
The geothermal heat pump will cost you less money in the long run, but it also has another advantage.
"The water source unit or the geothermal unit does not have a defrost cycle to melt ice. The defrost cycle in an air source heat pump causes probably about 90 percent of the problems, so we eliminate that and make it simple. Right now, there is no other heating system that can compare in operating or longevity to the water source heat pump, only geothermal," Peterson says.
Peterson says he became a big fan of the geothermal heating system back in 1983. That's when he started selling and installing geothermal heat pumps. He is one of its biggest advocates.
"It is the most energy efficient system on the market today. On the average, I'm going to say it saves 50 percent in heating, on cooling about 40 percent; but if you take into consideration that you are heating your hot water in the summer time at a very minimal power, using a 60 watt pump motor that you are running, it will be about 50% your own," Peterson says.
What is so nice about the geothermal system is that it is environmentally friendly, Peterson says. This is another reason he is a big believer in the system.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy (The Department of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy) geothermal heat pumps are sometimes called geo-exchange pumps, earth-coupled pumps, ground-source pumps, or water-source heat pumps. They have been in use by homeowners and businesses since the late 1940's. Geothermal heat pumps use the temperature of the earth as the exchange medium instead of the outside air temperature. This allows the system to reach fairly high efficiencies (300%-600%) on the coldest of winter nights, compared to 175%-250% for air-source heat pumps on cool days.
Peterson says you can't go wrong with a geothermal system. He says in the end, it just makes more sense, because you are using the earth in the right way and saving money for it.
