Solar energy from the sun is absorbed by the earth. A buried pipe (loop) circulates a fluid (usually ethanol or methanol or other approved fluid) that absorbs this solar heat from the ground and conducts it into the building, where a compressor is used to transfer the heat into warm air (or warm water) and then distributed throughout the building.

When you think about it, rather than burn something to create heat, why not simply move it from where it is already stored? It is more efficient and environmentally superior to ‘transfer’ heat than to ‘create’ it through combustion.

No! It is the same technology that is in your fridge, and has been in use to heat and cool homes and commercial buildings for 30+ years.

However, significant advances have been made in the field, allowing for significant improvements in efficiency (and therefore savings). Improvements have been made not only in heat pump technology, but also in materials, installation methods and the effiency of compressors.

By transferring solar energy from the ground into a building, there is reduced need for generation and transmission of electricity, or less need to drill and transport fossil fuels, with an accompanying reduction in the emission of pollutants at all stages. Data from governments in both Canada (Natural Resources Canada) and the United States (Environmental Protection Agency) indicate that GeoThermal systems are the most benign space conditioning technology on the market today in terms of environmental impact.

The performance of the heat pump unit is rated by its ‘Coefficient of Performance’ (Or COP) which calculates how much energy is required to transfer heat into a building. In Canada, units cannot be sold if they rate below 2.8 CoP and many units achieve 3.5 or above. If the COP is 3.5, a system requires 1 kW of electrical energy to transfer and deliver 3,500 W of space heat; this is equivalent to a combustion furnace with an efficiency of 350 percent. Many units now have COP's of 4 or even 5!

COP = Coefficient Of Performance. A high efficiency gas furnace will often have a COP of 0.89 to 0.92 - meaning that it is 89%-92% efficient.. A COP of 4 means that the unit is 400% efficient - producing 4 times as much energy as is fed into it. Most GeoThermal systems have COP’s between 3 and 5.

EER = Energy Efficiency Rating. This is a performance measurement for air conditioners. Normal air conditioner units tend to have an EER between 10 and 15.. GeoThermal units tend to have EER’s between 17 and 32. Normally (for residental applications In Ontario), we are heating dominated, so the cooling performance will tend to be oversized.. this means that for Dual Capacity heat pumps, cooling will operate for most of the season in the ‘part load’ performance factor.