The ever rising costs of heating and cooling a home has forced many homeowners to search for ways to save energy to lower their household operating costs. Those who are building a new home have the opportunity to incorporate alternative energy measure into their building designs. If you are building a new home, here is how you can construct a geothermal energy system to help heat it during the winter and cool it during the summer.
Build Trenches
Trenches have to be dug below the freeze line to lay high density polyethylene (HDPE) pipes. You need to dig below the freeze to make sure you reach the point where the earth is at a constant temperature of between 50 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit – usually four to six feet in most geographical regions. The digging of the trenches can be done while the backhoes are on your property to dig your basement for the house.
Connect Pipes to a Manifold
Have you contractor put extra holes in the foundation walls to run your HDPE pipes through. The HDPE pipes are connected to a manifold that will send the incoming fluid to a pump. The fluid will circulate through your house and back into your manifold. The fluid is then sent out via the manifold to the HDPE pipes under your lawn where the fluid will absorb the energy from the ground and carry it back into your house.
Install Geothermal Pump
Your plumbing contractor can install a geothermal pump for your system at the same time they are installing the plumbing for your home. The pump will pull the fluid from the HDPE pipes in the yard and push through the pipes in the air handling system. The pump will then push the fluid back into the HDPE pipes under your lawn so the fluid coming from the house can be either heated or cooled before it eventually returns back to the air handling system.
Install An Air Handler
An HVAC contractor can install an air handling system specially designed to work with geothermal systems. The ground source heat pump will transfer the geothermal fluid into an air handling system, where it will warm the air in the air handler during the winter. The warm air is then sent through your house via a duct work system. In the summer, the cooler air coming emanating from the geothermal pump is used to cool your home.
Geothermal energy is a renewable energy source that effectively reduces your heating and cooling costs. If you are going to build a new home, you should talk to the home builders about how you can make it as energy efficient as possible with geothermal energy to help protect the environment and keep money in your wallet.
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