Geothermal heating/cooling starts with a long loop of flexible pipe filled with coolant that is buried:
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| underground horizontally, what we did |
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| or underground vertically, like a well |
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| or underwater, if you have a big enough pond or lake |
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The flexible pipe is filled with a coolant that absorbs heat from the ground (or the water of the pond). A compressor in your home concentrates the heat which is distributed as warm air through duct work (like a traditional furnace). In hot weather, you can collect heat from the house and put it into the earth to cool your house. Sky Heating & Air Conditioning of Portland, Hood River, and The Dalles installed our system. For more information see
www.skyheating.com
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| The trench for our ground loop |
When the trench was excavated for our ground loop, topsoil was placed to one side of the trench and subsoil to the other, so that the topsoil could be easily put back on top where it belongs. You can see the darker color of the topsoil piled up on the left side of the picture below (and the soil horizons on the right side of the trench):
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| The piping was laid in the trench |
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The piping in the foreground leads into the house and was installed with a special machine that bores a small tunnel underground, under the house, leading to where the compressor and pump are installed in the little room that used to hold our old oil furnace.
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| Our new high-tech thermostat :) |
