install-geothermal-heat / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

Geothermal Heating Systems for Homes Domestic Geothermal heating systems can be a great way to heat a home, replace a furnace, and are labeled as money savers. Question is, are they worth the hype? Here's a quick view first of how they operate. Starting at depths of between 6 and 10 metres, the temperature of the earth...

Geothermal vs. ASHPs - what's the difference? Heating and cooling systems play a crucial role in maintaining comfortable indoor temperatures in homes everywhere . With advancements in technology, homeowners have various options for energy-efficient heating and cooling systems. Two popular choices are geothermal heating...

Air Source Heat Pumps, and are Ground Source Heat Pumps "Geothermal?" Let's clear up some confusion on terminology regarding heat pumps - search Google for Geothermal Heating Systems and you will find hundreds maybe thousands of companies using the word "Geothermal" to describe ground source heat pumps, two systems tha...

The importance of installing doors and windows correctly: Window and door openings are breaches in a building envelope that need to be carefully managed in order to prevent moisture damage and air leakage in homes as well as to save energy. Water leaks from around windows and doors are the visible result of a poor inst...

How do the best heat pumps work? A heat pump works very differently than other home heating systems, in that it doesn’t ‘generate’ heat the way a furnace, boiler, radiator, oven or even a toaster or hair dryer would; instead, it collects heat from one place and transfers it to another. Think of your refrigerator as an ...

How well does a mini split heat pump work in a LEED or Passive House certified home?  Really well as it happens, see a great example of a split system heat pump installation in the Edelweiss LEED Platinum V4 Home below: The Edelweiss House has a radiant floor to keep our feet comfortable but we rely on a Mitsubishi Mr....

Our previous update covered aspects of the building envelope, which allowed us to reduce the annual heating requirement to about the Passive House standard of 15 kWh per square meter. Windows are a part of that but they are also part of our energy performance strategy. The house is laid out south facing to maximize pas...

Heat Pumps explained simply When it comes to residential heating and cooling systems, few types of heating systems are as energy efficient as heat pumps. But what exactly are heat pumps and how do they work? In short, a heat pump is simply an electrically powered device that is capable of transferring heat from one pla...

SEER v HSPF v COP (& SCOP): Understanding Heat Pump Ratings Many people are considering making the switch to a heat pump, for a variety of different reasons, including the heat pump grants available in Canada and the USA to offset the cost and the potential cost savings of buying and installing a single unit that c...

Siding installation The walls of your home are an environmental separator. Their job is to keep the inside in and the outside out. Exterior cladding or siding is your first line of defense against weather elements, and its job is to allow interior control layers (ie. the building envelope) to do their jobs without bei...

Having a backup heat source that can operate without electricity should be an important consideration for many homeowners in colder climate zones, especially those who rely on a heat pump or electricity as their primary source of heat. In this guide, we will explore the various factors that can influence the need for a...