FAQ

GeoExchange

Can I heat my house with the solar hot water system?

Yes, solar heating can be done but a seasonal storage system is required.  In B.C., we heat in the winter when our solar resource is at its minimum.  To overcome this you can either oversize the amount of collectors on your roof or increase your storage.

In the first scenario of over sizing your collector array, you develop a problem in the summer as to what to do with the excess heat generated by the large system.  It can become an issue of inefficiency to continually dump heat from the oversized system in the summer.

The second scenario involves creating a thermal storage system (thermal mass) to store heat in the summer and shoulder seasons, and pull it out in the winter when you are heating.  This can be combined with a heat pump, or gas boiler.  The thermal storage must be sized to adequately store enough heat to make the system feasible.

GeoThermal vs GeoExchange, what’s the difference?

These terms are often used interchangeably, particularly in the context of heating a building.  In reality, the term GeoThermal implies the direct use of heat generated at great depths below the Earth's surface.

What ends up being called GeoThermal in the building heating industry is more aptly referred to as GeoExchange, which is a central  heat pump based heating/cooling system that pumps heat into or from the ground or a body of water.  These systems are also  called Ground Sourced , Water Sourced or Earth Coupled Heat Pump Systems.

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