"Air source through the refrigeration cycle can pull heat out of the outside air and then through the refrigerant system and dissipate that heat into the conditioned space. It works reverse in the summer time. It takes the heat out of the conditioned space and disperses it outside," Peterson says.
According to the website, Geothermalheatpump.com, a heat pump is a tool that pumps heat from one place to another. The most commonly used heat pump is the air-source kind. It functions in two ways: as an air-conditioner, a heat pump's indoor coil (heat exchanger) takes heat from the inside of a structure and pumps it to the coil in the unit outside where it is discharge. As a heating source, the heat pump's outdoor coil takes heat from the air outside and pumps it indoors where it is discharged to the air inside.
Water source heat pumps or geothermal heat pumps work a little differently.
"The water source heat pump does it by flowing water through the heat pump rather than air. You can get the water from any location, as long as it's within the temperature range that the heat pump can operate off of," Peterson says.
All molecules have a certain amount of heat. Zero degrees Kelvin/Rankine (minus 273 degrees Celsius/minus 460 degrees Fahrenheit) is absolute zero. Even the temperatures in the universe have some degree of heat. They measure around three degrees Kelvin.
Heat always flows from higher temperature matter to lower temperature matter by conduction (from molecule to molecule), by convection (air currents) and by radiation (electro-magnetic waves).
A geothermal heat pump system works like this. A geothermal pump takes heat from water rather than from the air outside. The way both systems function are similar; however, the way the heat is exchanged is different. Heat is pumped through through a special type of heat exchanger and is either "chilled" by the evaporating refrigerant or heated by the condensing refrigerant.
Peterson says the geothermal system has revolutionized heat pumps in the home. He recommends that everyone explore getting one into their home. He says in the end, it can save you money.
