Eco-Friendly Heating with a Geothermal Heat Pump

eco-friendly heating
If you are planning to change the way you heat your home, make that leap to geothermal. It could be the most significant investment in the future of our planet you make. How? These heat pumps are green, clean and super-efficient. More importantly, they can still deliver the eco-friendly heating you want to keep your home warm, comfortable, and safe.

Eco-Friendly Heating Will Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

By switching to a geothermal heat pump, you could reduce your home’s greenhouse gas emissions by up to 75 percent. Imagine if every home in the US did this. Think about the impact it would have on reducing our energy consumption, cutting our emissions, and cleaning up our environment. Traditional HVAC systems rely on gas, coal, and oil to generate their power. These all increase your carbon footprint. With geothermal, that trend reverses because it is a sustainable energy source. Imagine a world where you are not held hostage by increasing fossil fuel prices as the supply becomes more scarce. And to top it all, you can do all this and remain guilt-free. Let’s use a typical 1,500 square foot home with an oil-fired heating system as an example. Over the course of a year, it would burn around 750 gallons of oil, equating to about 17,000 pounds of carbon dioxide. Using geothermal heating, that same home reduces its carbon footprint to 4,500 pounds of carbon dioxide. That’s a reduction of over 12,000 pounds in a single year, the equivalent of removing one car from the road for a year.

Electric Power Generation

It's certainly true that geothermal heat pumps require electricity. A lot of electricity in the US still comes from fossil fuel sources such as coal or natural gas. However, these resources are not intrinsically required for geothermal heating as they are with a gas or fuel-oil furnace. A new ground-source system will operate just as well on electricity generated via renewable sources or clean nuclear energy as it would coal, oil, or gas.

What Are the Financial Benefits of Eco-Friendly Heating?

If we told you that there was a form of energy that never ran out, produced 75 percent less harmful gasses, and ensured stability in your heating and cooling costs, you’d have every right to be skeptical. But that is what geothermal does. Exactly that! So, let’s look at the financial benefits of switching to a geothermal heat pump. It is possible to achieve savings of almost 60 percent when compared to conventional energy. A geothermal heat pump uses one unit of energy to transfer three units of heat from the earth, making it incredibly efficient. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), your annual energy-savings should be somewhere between 30 and 60 percent. They break down these costs to a saving of between 30 and 70 percent on heating and 20 to 50 percent on cooling. It translates to a yearly saving of between $400 and $1,500. Studies show that the average American lives in one home for 13 years. It means that over that same period, you will recoup your initial outlay. Given that Geothermal systems last 25 years plus, and the coils can last up to 50 years, the system will return over double what you paid and still save you 60 percent each year on your energy costs. Sometimes your motivation may not be to save the planet, but simply that you want the best value for your dollars. Geothermal heat pumps deliver that too! It doesn’t matter why you decide to switch, just that the planet benefits all the same (and so does your wallet).

Less Environmental Damage

When we talk about environmental damage, we don't just mean the emissions when you burn these fossil fuels in the domestic environment, we also know the destruction it creates mining this energy. Extracting coal, gas, and oil is a messy business and extremely expensive. Fracking, drilling, and mining are fraught with environmental effects. Spills of oil can be catastrophic to the ecosystems of the oceans, and the surrounding wildlife. Fracking has been proven to cause earth tremors, and we’ve yet to discover the more prolonged effects on the environment. Pipelines are vulnerable to attack, damage, and leaking, leading to contamination of land and water. On a domestic level, gas pipes and sunken oil tanks degrade over time, leading to an increased risk of spillage. With geothermal heat pumps, these risks cease to exist. The ground loops on a geothermal system are made from high-density polyethylene and last well over 50 years.

Shortages

And fossil fuels are finite. While there are still significant reserves left around the world, we will eventually run out of them. There is only so much oil, gas, and coal. When it's gone, it's gone. Of course, we won't run out overnight, but we will likely see shortages in the coming decades. With a geothermal heat pump and renewable energy, your life will be unaffected.

Eco-Friendly Heating with Geothermal is Safer

It is safer and cleaner than traditional fuels like gas and oil. Heating your home using combustion is always going to be more dangerous than switching to geothermal energy. Burning gas and oil produces waste fumes that need to be channeled away from the home and out into the atmosphere. According to the EPA, burning fossil fuels is the largest contributor to increased greenhouse gas emissions, with residential property responsible for 12 percent of the 6,677 million metric tons of CO2 produced by the entire country in 2018. These gasses are lethal if inhaled. Carbon dioxide suffocates the planet, and carbon monoxide suffocates you, literally. It is the silent killer. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), carbon monoxide poisoning “kills hundreds every year and makes thousands more sick.” A geothermal heating system produces zero carbon monoxide emissions and is entirely safe. There are also other noxious byproducts of burning gas and oil to consider inside your home. You create particulate matter when you burn these fuels, as well as micro carbons that all add to the creation of acid rain. These pollutants are heavily linked to respiratory problems that are so serious, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), they contribute to approximately 15,000 deaths annually in the United States. Geothermal heat pumps don’t burn fossil fuels, don’t create particulates that could increase heart and lung diseases, as well as irritate asthma and have no combustion element to create heat. They are safe, green, clean, and above all, efficient. The planet benefits as do you in dollar savings every year.

Eco-Friendly Heating (and Cooling) Can Save the Planet

There is still time to do your bit and invest in a geothermal heat pump. We understand that you might still be skeptical, but you wouldn't be alone. According to Energy Saver, the Department of Energy’s consumer resource for saving energy, there are approximately 50,000 geothermal heat pumps installed in the US every year, and that figure is rising. While the cost of a brand new system is often more than installing a furnace that burns oil or gas, the long term benefits are more than worth it. There are also significant tax deductions available both federally and at the state level. It is even definitely worth it to speak to your utility provider to find out if they have any local programs. Many offer low-interest financing, incentives, or flat rebates for eco-friendly heating and cooling installations.

Ingram's Water & Air Equipment

Are you ready to make the switch to a geothermal heat pump and start enjoying truly eco-friendly heating and air? Call us today at 270-575-9595.
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