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Geothermal systems for producing heating and cooling have been around for many years. These systems are run by electricity , there are no gas heat pumps on the market. You might be asking yourself what is a geothermal heat pump and why is it different than a standard heat pump. Well , the answers are that a standard heat pump has a unit outside of the home or commercial space that provides conditioned air to a specific location .This outdoor unit will be subject to extreme temperature swings throughout the year. It can be subjected to zero degrees fahrenheit in the winter and 100 degrees fahrenheit in the summer . The heat pump has to try to pick up heat from the air that is at zero degrees and return it into 100 degree temperature climates . The geothermal unit does not have an outdoor unit or an outdoor coil . Instead , they send water into the earth in wells or sized trenches so they will give up heat or pick up heat to make the heat pump work. The ground temperature is much more stable the deeper you dig. The normal Arkansas installation of the loop field or in ground heat transfer equipment is to dig wells vertically into the earth. The standard earth formations here require a well 200 feet deep with the piping going down 200 feet and returning to the surface at 200 feet to pick up heat or give it back to the earth and return the water back to the unit as close to the standard year round temperature of 40-80 degrees of the earth at 6 feet deep. The geothermal heat pump is different in this respect but the same in all others. It has an indoor blower motor and coil , compressor and standard thermostat controls .

You 're probably wondering why anyone would go to the expense of digging all those wells if it works the same as a standard heat pump. Because

the ground temperature is 40-80 degrees at 6 feet under the surface and water is sent to the earth at this depth or greater , the heat pump thinks the outdoor temperature is from 40 -80 degrees all the time because the heat picked up from the heat pump is given back to the earth and the water

is returned at the temperature of the earth creating an ''outdoor temperature'' that is much more stable and much more efficient to deal with .Since there is much more heat in 40 degree water and zero degree air and much less heat in 80 degree water than 100 degree air, the geo thermal unit has to work much less to produce the same amount of conditioned air.

All this means is that the geo thermal heat pump will produce conditioned air to a home or commercial space at the absolute lowest cost of any kind of equipment that uses a utility company .

Nothing known today will produce a BTU of cooling or heat more cheaply all year round for heating and cooling than a geothermal heat pump.

If geothermal heat pumps are so efficient why doesn't everyone use them ? The answer is that they are more expensive to install than a standard air source unit . A geothermal heat pump has to have a loop field dug to a minimum of 6 feet under the earth and have 400 feet of pipe per ton in the ground at that depth. It is the cost to dig the loop field , drill the wells, and bring the piping to the equipment with pumps to circulate that water that makes this type of system more expensive .The average geothermal heat pump will cost from 30 % to 50 % more than a conventional system .

The Jim Brown Company is proud to be a Water Furnace dealer.

ATTENTION : PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT THE 2009 STIMULUS PACKAGE HAS JUST BEEN PUT TO LAW AND IT HAS A PROVISION IN IT THAT ALLOWS FOR ANYONE THAT WISHES TO INSTALL A GEOTHERMAL HEAT PUMP IN THEIR HOME OR COMMERCIAL PROJECT THAT THE OWNER OF THAT HOME OR COMMERCIAL PROJECT WILL RECEIVE A TAX REFUND OF 30 % OF THE COST OF THE ENTIRE INSTALLATION . EXAMPLE: A GEO-THERMAL HEAT PUMP IS INSTALLED IN A HOME . IT IS A 5 TON UNIT AND HAS A VERTICAL LOOP FIELD. THE TOTAL COST OF THE INSTALLATION IS $30, 000.OO . THE OWNER OF THAT HOME WILL RECEIVE A TAX CREDIT IN THE AMOUNT OF $ 10,000.00 FROM THE IRS. THE OWNER OF THE HOUSE WILL CONTRACT FROM THEIR HEATING AND COOLING CONTRACTOR TO HAVE THE WORK DONE, PAY THE BILL IN ITS ENTIRETY TO THEM AND RECEIVE THEIR REBATE OR MONEY BACK WHEN THEY FILE THEIR TAXES FOR THE YEAR THAT THE HEAT PUMP WAS INSTALLED.