Extra’ordinary Energy : Water Based

Water Based Geothermal

Horizontal Closed Loop

Installation of a Horizontal Ground Loop

Horizontal Closed Loop Geothermal uses High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) piping to absorb the earths heat. This HDPE is filled with a water, propylene glycol solution which travels through the ground loop before returning to the Geothermal Heat Pump to transfer the acquired heat. The transfer from this point is explained better under the 'How it Works' heading found under the 'Geothermal Systems' heading.

The installation of these systems require multiple trenches to be excavated to depths of 5-6 feet. At these depths our earth remains at a relatively constant temperature allowing us to obtain heat even on the coldest day of the year. Horizontal Geothermal systems are designed to work with forced air (duct work) and radiant in-floor distribution systems.

Vertical Closed Loop

Vertical HDPE Installation

Vertical Closed Loop Geothermal uses HDPE Pipes in the exact same way as the Horizontal system mention above. The big difference between these two systems is that in a vertical system we drill boreholes into the earth at depths of 180ft. Our HDPE is then inserted to allow our water, propylene glycol solution to travel through the earth absorbing the heat and returning it to our Geothermal Heat Pump located indoors. The process that takes place following this is described in the 'Geothermal Systems' section under the 'How it Works' heading.

These systems are designed to heat and cool your home of building as well it will produce a portion of your domestic hot water. These systems work well with forced air (duct work) and radiant in-floor distribution systems.

Lake Loop
Lake loops have proven to be very effective systems when the conditions are right. What is important here is that our pipes need to enter the body of water at depths of 6 feet below grade. Below that point we can operate free and clear of frost and ice. Although it can be hard to believe in the dead of winter there is still a lot of usable heat available once you get below the frozen surface layer. This system also has advantages in the way it utilizes the high thermal transferability of water.

Open Loop: (Open Well Geothermal)
Open well Geothermal systems pull water directly out of your well, extract a few degrees of heat, then reject the water right back into a leaching bed or rejection well. Open Well Geothermal has the advantage of being extremely efficient. The obstacle with these systems is that they require 3 GPM per Ton of equipment. Therefore a 4 ton Geothermal Heat Pump would require 12 GPM of water flow to operate efficiently. Also the longevity of the system is dependent on the quality of the ground water.