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The 2019 FHB House is a modern take on a traditional neighborhood home in a New Urbanist planned community outside of Louisville, Kentucky. The aesthetic is a nod to house styles found through historic southern cites but the choice of building materials and amenities is distinctly modern.

Kentucky 2019

A Geothermal Heat Pump Takes Care of Heating and Cooling

Required by the developer because they're quiet, ground-source heat pumps are also efficient.

By Jason Black
Article Image

The insulation covered in the last blog post brought the attic inside the home’s thermal envelope. In our region it’s common to run  HVAC ductwork in uninsulated attics where temperatures can get above 120°F in summer and drop below freezing in winter, which means the attic is overheating the ducts when the air conditioning is running and vice versa in the wintertime. By running our ductwork through an insulated attic that is much closer to our desired room temperature, our HVAC system doesn’t experience these common energy losses and the entire home ends up being more comfortable.

We are required to use a ground-source (AKA geothermal) heat pump in every home we build in Norton Commons. Because all of the houses use the same technology, the well-drilling is part of the infrastructure provided by the developer. When they prepare for a new street, they hire a drilling crew to come in and drill wells for all of the houses. As a builder, we pay a $7000 fee to cover the drilling and installation of the ground loop when we buy the lot.

For the FHB House there are two wells, each 350 ft. deep. The pipes are left long and the foundation contractor runs them through the walls when they pour the foundation. The ground-source heat pump is a pricey system compared to gas-fired furnace systems that would typically be specified in our area—as much as $15,000 more! However, we’re required to use this type of system because it’s quiet; something that makes a big difference with the houses so close together. There are few other advantages: The ground-source heat pump provides forced-air heating and cooling and takes care of domestic hot water. Plus, it’s very efficient. Our system has a coefficient of performance (COP) of around 4.

The drilling rig shown in the opening picture is working its way down the street drilling wells in each lot for vertical-loop closed-system geothermal heat pumps.
Ductwork to distribute conditioned air throughout the house is connected to the ground-source heat pump.
The loop pipes are brought through the walls when the foundation is poured and run long. When the heat pump and ductwork have been installed, the pipes are trimmed.
The supply and return ends of each loop are connected together. Socket connections are fused together at temperatures of 500°F to 600°F.
The air supply and return trunk lines are in place and the ground loops have been connected to the heat pump.
The loops are filled with an antifreeze solution and purged as part of the commissioning process.

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  1. User avater
    PatrickMclaren | Aug 16, 2019 01:25am | #1

    It's great!

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