Heating and Cooling | Ground
Source Heat Pump | Fans
and Air Circulation
Heating
and Cooling
The buildings at Rieth Village are heated and cooled by ground source heat pumps. This technology consists of an electric pump and a network of pipes buried in the ground. The pump pushes fluid through these pipes where it is cooled in the summer or warmed in the winter. Unlike a furnace that creates heat by burning a fuel, a ground source heat pump works by transferring heat from the surrounding earth to heat a building. Unlike an air conditioner that cools by transferring heat to the surrounding air, GSHPs cool by moving heat from within a building to the ground. Because the ground temperature is more constant than air temperature, it takes less energy to heat or cool a home using this technology. A ground source heat pump can cut the costs of heating and cooling a building by as much as 50%.