Geothermal Heat Pump
For comfort as well as health a good HVAC system is a requirement.
We will be using a ground source close loop heat pump, also called a geothermal heat pump.
What is it? Well, have you ever noticed on a refrigerator with coils on the back, how the coils heat up? Or perhaps how an air conditioner unit that sits outside heats up?
That is basically how any system that cools something works, it transfers heat from the place you want to be cool, to another location. Basically it is just moving heat from one place to another.
Your refrigerator takes heat from inside and then transfers that to outside the fridge where it can cool off.
Many of these systems will use a liquid of some sort, because liquids hold heat better than air.
A geothermal heat pump works the same way. In the winter, the ground (below about 10 feet) is always about 55 degrees. The system uses a series of tubes that carry liquid through the earth, returning that warmth to the house and concentrating it.
This can also be done to exchange heat from the air outside. This is less expensive, however, it is also much less efficient as it gets colder outside (you can only get so much heat out of air that is zero degrees).
The advantage to using the ground as a source of heat is it is always between 50 and 60 degrees below 10 feet.
And in the summer, rather than trying to move heat out of the house into the air that may be 80, 90 or more degrees, it is much more efficient to dump that heat back into the earth where it is still about 55 degrees.
We are designing the HVAC system with a number of zones in the house. This will allow us to only heat of cool areas of the house we are in, or expect to be soon.
The ventilation system also has a number of interesting aspects not normally seen in residential HVAC systems.
For example, small rooms, that still require a vent, may have smaller vents. No need for a closet to have the same size fresh air vent as a bedroom four times the size.
We also are taking precautions to plan out the ductwork paths carefully. We want to minimize bends and turns in the ductwork as well as have short runs of the ductwork. The longer the path is, as well as the more turns in the ductwork, the more energy it takes to move the air through it.
We will be using a ground source close loop heat pump, also called a geothermal heat pump.
What is it? Well, have you ever noticed on a refrigerator with coils on the back, how the coils heat up? Or perhaps how an air conditioner unit that sits outside heats up?
That is basically how any system that cools something works, it transfers heat from the place you want to be cool, to another location. Basically it is just moving heat from one place to another.
Your refrigerator takes heat from inside and then transfers that to outside the fridge where it can cool off.
Many of these systems will use a liquid of some sort, because liquids hold heat better than air.
A geothermal heat pump works the same way. In the winter, the ground (below about 10 feet) is always about 55 degrees. The system uses a series of tubes that carry liquid through the earth, returning that warmth to the house and concentrating it.
This can also be done to exchange heat from the air outside. This is less expensive, however, it is also much less efficient as it gets colder outside (you can only get so much heat out of air that is zero degrees).
The advantage to using the ground as a source of heat is it is always between 50 and 60 degrees below 10 feet.
And in the summer, rather than trying to move heat out of the house into the air that may be 80, 90 or more degrees, it is much more efficient to dump that heat back into the earth where it is still about 55 degrees.
We are designing the HVAC system with a number of zones in the house. This will allow us to only heat of cool areas of the house we are in, or expect to be soon.
The ventilation system also has a number of interesting aspects not normally seen in residential HVAC systems.
For example, small rooms, that still require a vent, may have smaller vents. No need for a closet to have the same size fresh air vent as a bedroom four times the size.
We also are taking precautions to plan out the ductwork paths carefully. We want to minimize bends and turns in the ductwork as well as have short runs of the ductwork. The longer the path is, as well as the more turns in the ductwork, the more energy it takes to move the air through it.
Fresh Air Exchanger
Our house is very highly insulated with very little natural ventilation. For comfort and health, we need to provide fresh air.
We are doing this with something many modern houses use, a Heat Recovery Ventilation (HRV) system.
This system will take air from inside and run it past air it takes in from the outside through a series of vents. This is done in such a way that the heat is taken from the inside air and transferred to the fresh air from outside. Once warmed, or cooled, the fresh air is released through the HVAC system.
We are doing this with something many modern houses use, a Heat Recovery Ventilation (HRV) system.
This system will take air from inside and run it past air it takes in from the outside through a series of vents. This is done in such a way that the heat is taken from the inside air and transferred to the fresh air from outside. Once warmed, or cooled, the fresh air is released through the HVAC system.