This Tuesday Gary and Larry came to complete the last two pieces of the geothermal system puzzle - the “real” duct work and a desuperheater. Now “desuperheater” sounds like a funny word, what does it do? In short, it is another heat exchanger that pre-heats the domestic hot water. It re-routes the cold water intake from the source and pre-heats that cold water when the geothermal unit is running. It works the best in the summer time when the geothermal unit works as an air conditioner. Most systems can provide 100% free hot water in the summer time! This is because the heat removed from the house would otherwise be lost into the ground if not used to heat up water. In the wintertime, the desuperheater pre-heats water by using a portion of the heat that would otherwise be used for space heating, which means it’s not free. But this process is significantly more efficient than using an electric hot water tank (which is what we have). Although a desuperheater may not be sufficient to provide enough hot water to a family of 5 in the winter time, Jason and I have actually unplugged our electric hot water tank and we’ve been having enough hot water for shower, dishes, and other uses just from the desuperheater. We’re pretty amazed!
Now an important note is that the desuperheater does NOT work when the geothermal unit is not running, therefore we still have to heat our hot water tank with our hot water tank in those seasons. Overall, heat pump desuperheaters can save up to 50-60% hot water heating bill. For comparison, a high efficiency electric resistance water heaters can reduce heating bills by only 10 - 20% over a minimum efficiency one. You can read more about them on NRCan website.
Alright, enough boring stuff, here’s our sleek new geothermal, completed in style! You can also find them in the Picasa Album.
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