Frequently Asked Questions

  • A heat pump is a piece of mechanical equipment that simply moves thermal energy from one place to another. As an example in the air conditioning season, it extracts heat from your home and moves (rejects) it to the air outside (air source) or to the ground (ground-source).

    In this way, the heat pump is a system that allows energy to be exchanged between two means or sources of temperature: source and production. Source can be defined as the medium that the heat pump uses as its primary focus and allows heat pumps to be classified based on the type of medium used mainly in geothermal heat pumps and aerothermal heat pumps. Meanwhile, the production corresponds to the environment to be heated, be it the home, the DHW circuit, the pool, or any other.

  • Geothermal energy is defined as the energy stored in the form of heat in the ground below the surface, therefore, it encompasses the heat stored in rocks, soils and groundwater, whatever its temperature, depth and origin. Geothermal resources are the portion of geothermal energy that can be used by us under technical and economic conditions. These resources are classified according to their thermal level: high temperature (above 150 °C), medium temperature (between 150 and 130 °C), low temperature (between 100 and 30 °C) and very low temperature. (below 30 °C).

    Therefore, geothermal energy is a renewable energy source that allows its use, both from the point of view of energy supply with high guarantees, and from the thermal point of view as an alternative of high energy efficiency for air conditioning and DHW, with outstanding energy savings thanks to the application of heat pumps.

  • A geothermal heat pump is a heat pump that uses a geothermal ground loop as its source of energy. The loop can have different configurations: vertical (geothermal wells of variable depth according to the needs and the type of terrain), horizontal (through horizontal pipes buried at a depth of generally about 5’ and arranged as a single circuit in series or several in parallel), or even open loop (pumping water from a supply well and discharging back to a second return well).

    Compared to aerothermal systems, the main advantage of geothermal heat pumps is performance. The efficiency of these systems is greater due to the stability of the earth temperature, which is more constant as it is barely influenced by environmental conditions, which is a guarantee of performance and efficiency for the heat pump as well as capacity when you most need it.

  • The NetZero series is GeoSmart Energy’s range of inverter driven geothermal heat pumps. These heat pumps, both domestic and high power, are compatible with any type of geothermal loop, plus they are capable of hybrid aerothermal-geothermal source and fully aerothermal source. They are an air conditioner, furnace, boiler, and DHW system all-in-one!

    All NetZero heat pumps make use of Inverter technology, which allows them to modulate their power, thus adapting at all times to the demands of the installation with the highest efficiency. This obviously translates into a very considerable reduction in consumption and great savings, not only due to their high efficiency, but thanks to the technology and control strategies developed by our team; the installation of NetZero heat pumps can be much simpler, more compact and cheaper than other heat pumps on the market, as it makes it possible to eliminate certain components that would be necessary in a traditional heat pump installation.

  • Aerothermal energy is defined as the energy stored in the form of heat in the ambient air. The air, even at low temperatures (in winter), is a source of energy that can be used by a heat pump. These systems use outdoor units that allow the outside air to be used as the primary source of energy for the heat pump.

  • An aerothermal heat pump is a heat pump that uses ambient air as a renewable energy source, through a unit equipped with a fan that is located outside the building or facility to be heated.

    Compared to geothermal systems, the main advantage of air source heat pumps is the price of the installation. The initial investment in this type of system is less than a geothermal installation, since it is not necessary to drill or dig into the ground to carry out a ground loop installation. The consideration is the performance, generally lower in aerothermal equipment than in geothermal, due to the variability of temperature associated with outdoor air temperatures throughout the year.

  • The NetZero AIR range is GeoSmart Energy’s range of aerothermal (air-source) heat pumps. These heat pumps are capable of air conditioning, heating (infloor heating, fan-coils and low temp radiators), and DHW production.

    All NetZero AIR heat pumps make use of Inverter technology, which allows them to modulate their power, thus adapting at all times to the demands of the installation with the highest efficiency. This obviously translates into a reduction in consumption and also ensures great savings, not only due to high efficiency, but also thanks to the technology and control strategies developed by our team.

  • The INVERTER of a heat pump regulates the speed of the compressor depending on the thermal power that is required. Most of the time, the building needs only partial loads, so a heat pump with INVERTER technology has the ability to modulate and adapt the power delivered, adapting to the real demand that a home may have, for example.

    In this way, thanks to the INVERTER, the compressor works continuously and smoothly, unlike ON/OFF compressors, which start and stop frequently to obtain the desired temperature. The advantages of INVERTER compressors over ON/OFF compressors are multiple. Some of them are:

    • Higher seasonal performance, which translates into greater savings.
    • Lower installation costs. Buffer tanks can sometimes be eliminated.
    • Continuous starts and stops are avoided.
    • Greater comfort. The temperature remains stable.
    • Longer useful life of the heat pump.

  • The functionalities that a heat pump has are many. Heat pumps are used for heating and cooling production, DHW and even heating swimming pools. The great advantage is that all these services are included in the same unit, saving space, costs and simplifying installations.

  • Passive cooling or free cooling is an exclusive feature of some of our optionally equipped geothermal heat pumps. In summer, the geothermal well is at a stable temperature of approximately 15ºC (colder than the environment), so it can be used as a cold source and directly absorb the heat from the house, without having to operate the pump compressor of heat. In this way, refrigeration powers of 5 or 6 kW can be achieved with incredibly high performance, and practically at zero cost.

  • Energy managers are accessories that allow hybridization between heat pumps and photovoltaic installations. At GeoSmart Energy, we use a unique technology patented on the international market by our manufacturer that we call e-manager; and we include this software as standard in all of our units.

    Zero injection is sought with this technology and the main advantage is control over the management of photovoltaic surpluses, adapting the power of the compressor to said surplus, accumulating it in the form of thermal energy. Other interesting functions are: control over electricity tariff schedules, the possibility of configuring a power limit and management of non-critical loads. In this way, greater savings and efficiency are achieved.