In the past, we’ve written a few articles about what exactly the IGSHPA accreditation is, if it’s worthwhile, and when contractors should get it.
The International Ground Source Heat Pump Association (IGSHPA) now has a separate program for drillers, called “Vertical Loop Installer Accreditation.” This accreditation is similar to the traditional IGSHPA Installer Accreditation but specifically focuses […]
Yes, that’s my picture from my first video tutorial. Last week, I wrote a article on the 4 basic steps to deseigning a geothermal heat pump system for a residential home. To refresh your memory, those steps are 1) perform heat gain/loss calculations 2) size the heat pump 3) size the loop field 4) size the ground loop. To read more, click no the above link to get the full walk through.
I mentioned at the end that there were a few advanced design topics I did not cover. One was the trade off in heating dominate climates between a small unit that is undersized for heating and thus sometimes needs to use (very exepsnvie) electric heat versus a larger unit that can produce plenty of heat, but requires a larger (very expensive) loop field to function correctly. To address these questions, I’ve created a video tutorial using a sample project to walkthrough the comparison. Read past the break for full details and join HeatSpring on facebook to keep the most up to date on free courses, events, tips, resources and news. If you’re a clean energy professional and looking to connect with other geothermal professionals to collaborate on jobs or best practices, request to join HeatSpring’s linkedin group for Clean Energy Professionals
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The first part to understanding any aspect of the geothermal industry, whether it be marketing, sales, design or installation is to understand how the technology works and it is designed. By understanding the design process, even if you are never going to do design yourself, you will better understand how the technology is sold, will be confident when speaking to customers, will know what information needs to be collected on a site visit, and which leads have greater potential then others. If you plan on working on the installation side, understanding design will give you the knowledge to understand the different parts of an installation and what those may cost.
If you’re new to the geothermal heat pump industry, read the Geothermal 101 Reading list. It has free tools and articles on geothermal design and installation and sales and marketing best practices. Here are some other free resources:
Free Mini-Course: Installing & Commissioning Real Time Geothermal Monitoring Systems
Article: Lessons Learned on Ground Loop Sizing from 100,000+ Hours of Real-Time Geothermal Monitoring Data
Article: Lessons Learned on Operating COPs from 100,000+ Hours of Real-Time Geothermal Data
Article: Performance-Based Contracting is the Future of Residential Geothermal
Here are the four basic steps to geothermal heat pump design. For this article, we’ll focus on a single-family residential building.
4 Steps
Heat Loss/Gain Calculations
Size Heat Pump
Size Loop Field
Size Air/Water Distribution Center
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Here is an excerpt from a white paper I just published on how and where a ground source heat pump can be utilized to gain LEED certification.
By now, nearly everyone has at least heard of LEED but not many understand what it means to be LEED-certified or how best to earn certification. Developed by the US Green Building Council (USGBC), LEED stands for “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design”. Simply put, LEED is a grading system for sustainable building design and construction.
The goal of the program is to encourage the construction of buildings that use less energy, water and natural resources in order to minimize the impact of a structure on the local environment during construction and throughout its useful life. Needless to say, geothermal heating and cooling systems can go a long way to supporting all of these goals.
The LEED rating system works by requiring a minimum level of performance through prerequisites organized under eight different categories. Once you are able to meet the minimum performance requirements in each category, any improvements above and beyond are rewarded through a points system. The eight categories are:
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