Geothermal heat pumps are hot! Pike Research, a cleantech research firm, forecasts that annual sales of geothermal heat pumps in the U.S. will double over the next 6 years. They estimate 2017 sales to reach 326,000 units, up from about 150,000 units shipped in 2011. That’s potentially a lot of HVAC business for you – especially in new construction projects.

Geothermal Has a viable future.

Geothermal heat pumps currently represent only about 1% of the residential heating and cooling market, but they have gained a devoted following. Efficient and reliable, they are suited for use in any part of the country. Also known as ground source heat pumps, they are durable, requiring little maintenance. And they’re a lot less expensive to run. The EPA cites energy cost savings of 30-60% over conventional systems.

Tax incentives are helping to drive the dramatic growth in the market. Through 2016 the federal government offers a credit of 30% on the cost of installing an approved geothermal system, taking a huge bite out of the initial cost.

Still, sticker shock is common. Installing a residential geothermal heat pump system will set a homeowner back between $10,000 and $30,000, on average. This sizable investment works well in new construction, where the additional few dollars on the mortgage payment is more than offset by utilities savings. It’s harder to swallow those costs on an existing home.

But that 30-60% savings on energy bills adds up.  According to the EPA, the additional costs of installing a geothermal system can be recouped in energy savings in as little as 3–10 years. The savings are especially significant when compared with running older, less efficient systems. National Public Radio reported in March, 2011, on a family that slashed its monthly cold-season heating bills from $600 to $100 by replacing an aging oil furnace with a geothermal system.

Demand will probably continue to increase in the future, pushed by rising energy prices, growing demand for electricity and regulations on efficiency.

Have you seen an increased demand for geothermal in your area or in your HVAC business? What do you see as its biggest benefits and drawbacks? Any advice for those just getting into the market?

The U.S. offers fairly generous incentives for installing renewable energy systems: Uncle Sam refunds 30% of the cost of a residential solar or wind installation, with no cap. Some states also offer refunds. That is a step in the right direction.

But realistically, at current prices, only a fraction of homeowners and businesses will spend the money for a whole-house renewable energy system. It makes more sense to retrofit homes with effective, low-cost solutions to high HVAC bills. Installing tankless water heaters and more efficient furnace systems, windows and insulation can have a huge impact on utility costs and emission levels. But government incentives for installing these affordable solutions were cut at the end of 2010.

The New York Times carried this article about a British company that retrofits homes using innovative insulation technology. The British government issues mandates and offers rebates to ensure older homes require less energy to provide comfortable living. According to the article, more than 80% of Britain’s older homes have been at least partially retrofitted. The company recently opened an office in the U.S. – a relatively untapped market for residential efficiency upgrades.

There are lots of ways to skin a cat – and we should be using all of them. Forays into sustainable technologies are essential. But we can eliminate a lot of cost and pollution just by making smart use of basic, low-cost materials and technology that we already have. Reinstating government incentives for lower-tech solutions could be at least as effective in managing energy resources and air quality as putting in another wind farm.

Political wrangling keeps our energy policy bouncing around like a ball on a court. But inevitably we will settle on a meaningful energy policy. When it happens, be sure you’re ready. A massive retrofit is not only great for the environment but a boon to your business. Make sure you’re ready to step in when the opportunity arises.

Slowly but surely we’re seeing progress on the renewable energy front. Solar power is gaining traction as a power source for residential HVAC equipment.

Last year LG announced its entry into the U.S. solar market with products specifically designed for residential use. Geoff Slevin, vice president of LG’s Solar Division, said the U.S. is now one of the fastest growing solar markets in the world, partly due to government incentives.

LG’s improved designs for residential applications eliminate several of the flaws and costs of earlier designs. The updated panels claim a lifespan of about 25 years. And it sounds like they’ve taken a cue from the U.S. postal system, producing electricity consistently under harsh conditions – rain, wind and snow (though no mention of sleet and hail).

In February of this year LG announced its collaboration with the University of Delaware to explore development of a high-voltage solar cell. The project will explore solar cell designs that use more of the available bandwidth of sunlight to increase power output while minimizing the size of the solar panel. Reducing the size of PV panels is a key to making solar power more accessible for residential customers. New designs are also bringing down costs, which is essential for solar to really have widespread applications.

It’s interesting to watch this from an HVAC perspective. the question is will residential solar use catch on in a big way? As some comments have shown, and I agree, it will be driven by price affordability to the mass market. There’s no doubt that the technology is getting much more efficient to produce, but there still seems to be so many advances in technology that a standard is somewhat off in the distance still and therefore, the price tipping point is too. No matter what the timing is, our business is certainly in for some changes and we have to be prepared for it.

Most viable long term power solution?

The raw power of the sun is hard to comprehend. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), a science-based advocacy group, all the energy stored in Earth’s coal, oil, and natural gas reserves is matched by the energy from just 20 days of sunshine! Solar energy is free and clean, and the sun has a pretty good track record of dependability.

Of course, putting it to work in our homes for HVAC use is a different animal. There are three main ways we can harness solar energy for residential HVAC applications: passive use, solar heat collectors and photovoltaics.

Passive Use: Simple design features such as properly orienting a house and using skylights, awnings and shade trees judiciously are especially useful in new construction. Thoughtful design decreases fuel consumption and increases HVAC efficiency.

Solar Heat Collectors: Most solar collectors are liquid-based and consist of pipes in a large, flat box that is painted black inside and covered with glass. The pipes carry heated liquid from the box into the building. The liquid typically transfers heat to a hot water tank or passes through radiators that heat the air.

Solar energy also powers air conditioning systems. A solar-assisted dessicant cooling system employs a combination of evaporative cooling with air dehumidification by a dessicant, such as silica gel.

In the solar powered absorption chiller, an alternative to a traditional compression chiller, solar energy heats a refrigerant under pressure, doing the job that usually requires a compressor. It’s a particularly efficient approach for office cooling since it works well during the hottest part of the day.

Solar heating or cooling systems generally require a small amount of electricity for running fans or pumps. That power can be provided by solar photovoltaic cells.

Photovoltaics: Photovoltaics (PV) is the direct conversion of light into electricity. Certain materials exhibit the photoelectric effect, which means they release electrons when exposed to light. This effect was first discovered in 1839 but not employed seriously until NASA used it to power spacecraft in the 1960s.

To make a PV cell, a thin semiconductor wafer is treated to form an electric field, positive on one side and negative on the other. When sunlight strikes the cell, electrons are knocked loose from atoms in the semiconductor material. Electrical conductors capture the electrons in the form of an electric current.

Until recently, PV systems have mostly powered off-grid applications: homes in remote locations, cell phone transmitters, road signs, water pumps, and millions of solar watches and calculators. But thanks to lower production costs, net metering policies, and government incentives, in 2005 installation of on-grid PV systems outpaced the installation off-grid systems for the first time.

It will be interesting to see whether solar power catches on as a major player in the residential HVAC market. What are your thoughts.

The Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) plans to begin industry-wide research and testing on alternative refrigerants next month. “The intent of the program is to help industry select the most promising refrigerants, understand technical challenges, and identify the research needed to use these refrigerants,” said Karim Amrane, AHRI vice president of regulatory and research, as quoted on www.ahrinet.org.

The study could pave the way for widespread use of lower Global Warming Potential (GWP) refrigerants in air conditioners, heat pumps, dehumidifiers, chillers, water heaters, ice makers, and refrigeration equipment.

The program is referred to as the Low GWP Alternative Refrigerants Evaluation Program, or Low GWP AREP (either way, it’s a mouthful). AHRI hopes that they can streamline the learning process and avoid duplicating work by initiating cooperative research and testing. They expect the program to accelerate the industry’s response to environmental challenges from the use of high GWP refrigerants.

A technical committee is developing detailed test protocols for compressor calorimeter testing, system drop-in testing, soft-optimized system testing, and heat transfer testing. U.S. and foreign manufacturers will be solicited to participate in the testing program, using their own resources and at their own expense. Heat transfer coefficient measurements will be contracted out to universities and private research laboratories.

We may not see any results from this for a while, but it’s research that could significantly influence the products and services that we provide our customers.