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wondering if you need baseboard heat system in order to have geothermal heating, cooling, etc.........
In my part of the county (volcano country), geothermal means deep wells that tap into very hot, nearly boiling water, which can be used for steam power generation or exchanged off for radiant heating.
I presume you most likely mean ground-sourced heat pumps, where you either use a body of water (like a lake) as a sink, or where you use shallow(er) wells or sumps. Those aren't radiant forms of heating, and you don't need baseboards - it's just like any other heat pump style of central heat/air.
Ours is a forced air system which uses electricity. Our furnace is Waterfurnace, and I don't believe it's the same thing as a heat pump. I think of a heatpump as something that sits outside and works more like an air conditioner unit.
Our fluid filled coil runs underground horizontally, but it could go vertically, or it could be submerged in a pond according to how much space you have.
wondering if you need baseboard heat system in order to have geothermal heating, cooling, etc.........
A home geothermal system is a heat pump, like a normal forced hot air system, but the outside condenser is a heat exchanger in the ground. Because the ground temperature is relatively constant, the unit efficiency is significantly higher than a traditional air source heat pump.
You need a good experienced installer, and there are relatively few of them around at this point. The loop installation is absolutely critical and the standard HVAC guy doesn't know anything about this. If you are in an area where they are already going in, I think your OK. I wouldn't want to be the first with a GSHP in my area, but I'd be happy to be 20th or 30th.
Check out geothermal-pa.com Geothermal Information and Troubleshooting
Last edited by mccommons; 06-28-2009 at 02:17 PM..
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