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Advanced Geothermal means we use state-of-the-art technology to
harness the full potential of geothermal energy, so it works as efficiently as possible to heat
and cool your home, office or factory. This technology is known as DX, or direct exchange, and is
backed by years of research, design and real world installations. In fact, we installed our first
Great Aire Comfort System™, which utilizes this technology, way back in 1990.
So why is the Great Aire Comfort System’s DX technology better than other geothermal systemS on the
market? To find the answer let’s first look at how other traditional geothermal systems work.
Traditional Geothermal Systems
Most of the early successful systems used water. Because these systems were very expensive to
install, they were mainly used to heat and cool large buildings. They used a well to pump
water out of the ground and passed the water through a heat exchanger. A refrigerant cyclewas
then used to remove heat from the water. This refrigerant was compressed to make a hot gas
that could be used to heat the building. We have two examples of a similar technology
being used every day. One example is our refrigerator, which uses the refrigerant cycle to take heat
out of our food and discharge it into the air in the kitchen. The second is our air conditioning
system, which also uses the refrigerant cycle to remove heat from our house and discharge it to the
outside air. |
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The Great Aire Comfort System™
In the 1980’s, engineers and scientists developed a geothermal system that did not use water. This
Advanced Geothermal Technology™ allows us to take the heat from the ground and transfer it
directly into the refrigerant – bypassing the need for an intermediate water/antifreeze based
solution. This new development reduced the cost of the geothermal equipment by eliminating all of
the components that were needed to transfer heat to and from the water. It also eliminated the
need to use cumbersome, expensive water well drilling rigs to install the system. In addition, the new
DX system was significantly more efficient than the water-based systems. Therefore, the already
low operating costs of a water-based geothermal system were driven even lower. This new technology was a
tremendous step forward and brought the cost of the geothermal systems down to the point where
they were cost efficient for town homes and smaller buildings.
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