Professionals in the industry might not be too thrilled with this page because my explanations might not be what is considered detailed or professional.
Hey, I’m just a regular guy trying to keep it simple and real.
This page provides what I hope to be easy to understand information regarding the differences between what I call regular heat pumps, water source heat pumps and geothermal ground source heat pumps.
I will try to keep things simple!
REGULAR HEAT PUMP
A regular heat pump acts very much like a normal freon based A/C unit. In the summer, it blows cold air in the house through the evaporator section and hot air outside through the condensing unit. It’s called ‘Air Cooled’
In the winter, a freon reversing valves makes the freon change directions and blows hot air inside and cold air outside.
In the summer, if the outside air temperature is hot like 100 degrees F the compressor works hard because of this hot temperature.
In the winter, if the outside temperature is cold like 30 degrees F it is very hard to produce heat for inside the house because of the low outside temperature. When this happens, most regular heat pumps rely on supplemental heat of some type which in my area is electric strip heaters and is very expensive to operate.
WATER SOURCE HEAT PUMP
Water source heat pumps work just like a regular heat pump but instead the unit operating with extreme outside temperatures because it’s air cooled, a water source heat pump uses a water heat exchanger with water supplied by a cooling tower and/or boiler. It’s called ‘Water Cooled’
Water source heat pumps are more reliable and efficient because the temperatures it operates in are artificially changed which makes the unit think it’s not so hot outside even when it’s 100 degrees F. With a water cooled heat pump, when it’s 100 degrees F outside, the heat exchanger water might only be 80 to 85 degrees F, which makes the unit think it’s only 80 to 85 degrees F outside when in reality it’s much hotter.
In the winter, instead of the unit trying to make heat from an outside temperature of 30 degrees F the unit makes heat from the heat exchanger water which could be running at 60 to 65 degrees F. These artificially made conditions make these units more efficient than regular heat pumps although they usually have a cooling tower and boiler attached to the system for the heat exchanger water.
GEOTHERMAL GROUND SOURCE HEAT PUMP
A geothermal ground source heat pump operates much like the water source heat pump explained above but instead of having a cooling tower and boiler in line to maintain heat exchanger water temperatures, it uses plastic tubing and the earth as its heat exchanger. It’s also ‘Water Cooled’
The earth is a more constant temperature and depending on where you live, the temperature could be constant in the range of 60 to 70 degrees F. This means no matter how hot or cold it is outside, the unit always thinks its between 60 and 70 degrees F. (depending on where you live)
A geothermal ground source heat pump unit is the most efficient of all heat pumps due to the fact it runs in great conditions (between 60 to 70 degrees F) all the time and does not have to rely on cooling towers or boilers to keep its heat exchanger loop at a constant and controlled temperature. The heat exchanger loop stays at a relatively constant temperature because it’s water runs through plastic tubing buried in the earth.
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