The most efficient geothermal heat pump unit

"We're particularly proud that our flagship 7 Series, the first variable capacity geothermal heat pump unit available to homeowners, was recognized with the Most Efficient designation," said Tim Litton, director of marketing at WaterFurnace. "We believe that receiving this honor for yet another product reflects that the WaterFurnace brand represents best-in-class innovation and energy efficiency."

The 700A11 utilizes WaterFurnace's InfiniSpeed technology, a soft-start variable capacity compressor, in concert with a variable speed ECM blower and variable speed loop pump. This allows the unit to scale output to exactly the level needed rather than the "high" or "low" speeds found in normal systems. The capacity range is the industry's widest and can even eliminate the need for auxiliary heat.

Hybrid Geothermal Heat Pumps

Why Geothermal Heat Pumps?

 The advantages of Geothermal Heat Pumps over conventional alternatives make them a very attractive choice for space conditioning and water heating for The advantages of GHPs over conventional alternatives make them a very attractive choice for space conditioning and water heating for both residential and commercial/institutional buildings. However, Geothermal Heat Pumps often have higher first costs than conventional systems making short-term economics unattractive. This disadvantage can be magnified in commercial buildings, many of which have much larger cooling needs than heating needs, especially for buildings located in climates typical of the southern United States. For Geothermal Heat Pump systems using closed-loop vertical ground heat exchangers, this load imbalance can result in a ground temperature increase over time causing system performance deterioration. Increasing the size of the ground heat exchanger or increasing the distance between adjacent heat exchanger boreholes can postpone the temperature increase problem but will also result in higher system cost. An alternative, lower cost approach for such applications can be use of a hybrid GHP design. In hybrid GHPs, the ground heat exchanger size is reduced and an auxiliary heat rejecter (e.g., a cooling tower or some other option) is used to handle the excess heat rejection loads during building cooling operation. The extent to which the ground heat  exchanger size can be reduced in a hybrid Geothermal Heat Pump system will vary with location and climate, but it must be at least large enough to handle the building heating requirements. Hybrid Geothermal Heat Pumps can also be used or sites where the geological conditions or the available ground surface will not allow a ground heat exchanger large enough for the building cooling loads to be installed.A number of recent reports and research papers have been published that deal with both design of hybrid GHPs and operating experience with a few installations. ASHRAE (1995) and Kavanaugh and Rafferty (1997) both discuss advantages of hybrid Geothermal Heat Pumps and present design procedures. The former sizes the auxiliary heat rejecter based on the difference between monthly average heating and cooling needs of the building and offers general guidelines for integration of the heat rejecter into the
system piping. The latter bases heat rejecter sizing on peak loads at design conditions
and the difference between required ground heat exchanger borehole lengths for heating and cooling.

Summary

Based on the results from the two case studies analyzed for this review, the following observations are made.
• Hybrid GHP systems can significantly reduce system first costs even when a tower needs to be purchased. Costs can be reduced by more than 50% for very highly cooling dominated applications such as the small office building in Houston (cooling-to-heating load ratio of 24:1). For applications where a suitable tower already exists (as at the Oceana study site), a hybrid system can result in system cost reductions of more than 50% even when the building is not overly cooling load dominated.
• For heavily cooling dominated sites, hybrid GHPs can result in heat pump and system energy savings compared to full GHPs when the supplementary heat rejecter is operated enough hours to reduce the average heat pump entering fluid temperature during the cooling season.
• The authors of both case studies point out that none of the hybrid system designs they examined have been optimized. A design optimization method is needed to balance GHX size, supplemental heat rejecter size and type, control strategy, and electric rate structure to achieve lowest life-cycle or first cost designs for a given location.

 http://www1.eere.energy.gov/femp/pdfs/hyhgp_tir.pdf

Geothermal cooling

Geothermal cooling system

Geothermal heat pump installations over the world

Canada
Statistical Report on Canada's Geothermal Heat Pump Industry 2011
“The State of the Canadian Geothermal Heat Pump Industry 2011 - Industry Survey and Market Analysis” has been launched by the Canadian GeoExchange Coalition (CGC)
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United Kingdom
Go Geothermal Predicts Rise In PE100-RC Pipework Installations
PE100-RC has the same properties as PE100 in terms of temperature resistance and the requirement for welded connections but crucially it offers better mechanical properties with increased resistance to both stress cracking and point loads.
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Scotland
Orkney installs geothermal heat pumps for public buildings
It is believed to be the biggest geothermal project of its kind in Scotland. Geothermal heat pumps are being used at the new Kirkwall Grammar School, Stromness Primary school, Papdale Halls, and the new developments at the Pickaquoy Centre.

Geothermal heat pump NEWS

Ministers plot to limit heat pump subsidies over cost fears.
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Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., is on the cusp of turning on what it says will be the largest ground source heat pump in the US, if not the world. The geothermal heat pump will cut the University’s carbon footprint roughly in half, the school says. It will also eradicate almost all of its $3 million annual fuel bill, but will cost about $1 million a year in electricity to run. Heothermal heat pumps – work by running water through pipes below the frost line, which is about six feet underground in Ball State’s locale. This water sits at the soil’s constant 55 degree temperature, meaning that it can be used for heating in winter and cooling during summertime.
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DESPITE a few concerns from district council, a West Vancouver home on Seaside Place won the right to install an underwater geothermal heat pump system. It's difficult to drill in a lot of the areas of West Vancouver due to rock because of that best medium of heat-transfer is water.
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Feige’s co-chairman, Rep. Paul Seaton, R-Homer, said similar geothermal projects were already being done in his district, and they might be used in more places than initially thought.In the geothermal heat pump system that became operational last May, the airport replaced $130,000 worth of diesel heat with $15,000 worth of geothermal heat , said Catherine Fritz, airport architect.
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Geothermal potentials in Moose Jaw
At least two generations the geothermal heating would prove a cost-effective, environmentally-friendly and local source of energy. While the system would require about 366 kilowatts of electricity to pump the water, the heat energy produced is about 29.25 million kilojoules per hour.
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MENA Geothermal awarded contract to repair and complete installation of geothermal heat pump system in Jordan.
MENA Geothermal was established in 2008 by its current President, Khaled Al Sabawi, to offer energy efficient, environmentally friendly, and cost effective heating and cooling systems to customers in the Middle East and North Africa region. During the same year, MENA Geothermal was awarded the Energy Globe Award, the world's most prominent and prestigious environmental prize, for its geothermal heating and cooling system at the UCI Headquarters Building in Ramallah, Palestine.

Geothermal heat pump systems - Consulting, Design and Build

Geothermal heat pump systems - Consulting, Design and Build

Hiring Geothermal Heat Pump Drilling Contractors

HVAC contractors, mechanical engineers, architects, developers, and others involved in geothermal heat pump installations should evaluate the qualifications of drilling contractors to protect groundwater and optimize heat pump system operation.

As much as 50% of the total geothermal heat pump market involves the use of vertical borehole subsystems. There are several different configurations of geothermal heat pump system installations involving vertical earth drilling:

* Open loop: single well for water withdrawal, water returned to a surface source
* Open loop: single well for water withdrawal, water returned to a second well
* Standing column: single well for water withdrawal and water return
* Closed loop: vertical borehole
* Direct exchange: vertical boreholes using concentric pipe systems.

A motivation for NGWA promoting these questions and the need to HVAC contractors, mechanical engineers, etc., is to direct them to NGWA-member or NGWA-certified contractors to do the drilling for geothermal heat pump installations. To find drilling contractors, including those who work on geothermal heat pump installations, use