This post will discuss the technical information Ontario homeowners should consider when reviewing their Geothermal Heat Pump installation options. There are several Ground Source Heat Pump manufacturer products available in Ontario. We’ll review the most common equipment configuration and assess the performance of two of the most significant ground source heat pump manufacturers with Geothermal Heating and Cooling products in Ontario today. If you’re interested in a more focused discussion about what heat pump system is right for your home, connect with us using our Qualify Your Home feature – this provides us with some initial information so we can better prepare for the discussion. On with the post!
What is a Water Furnace?
First, let’s address the elephant in the room. A Water Furnace is a general term that some Ontario homeowners, past and present, may use to describe Water Source Heat Pump systems. This terminology has been most commonly used to describe such systems in residential applications in Ontario since the early 1980s. The original idea behind naming the brand “WaterFurnace” was developed because the heat pump systems used groundwater to heat homes instead of burning fossil fuels. The fact is that there are several “Water Furnace” (Ground Source Heat Pump) manufacturers with products available in Ontario today.
Today, WaterFurnace (the company) is only one of a list of manufacturers of ground source heat pumps with products available for sale in Ontario and Eastern Canada. WaterFurnace is known for high-efficiency units and their optional Symphony Home Comfort platform. These features make WaterFurnace branded geothermal heat pumps a competitive offering. However, Most manufacturers offer similar equipment and options for homeowners looking to save money on their heating and cooling bills while reducing their environmental footprint. Like other manufacturers, WaterFurnace also has a wide range of equipment options, including Water-to-Water heat pumps, Water-to-Air, and multi-function units, making it easy to find the proper geothermal heating and cooling systems from any GSHP manufacturer.
WaterFurnace Heat Pump Performance
Digging into the equipment performance specifications, we can find the AHRI/ISO 13256-1 Performance Ratings for the 5-Series, a standard Water-to-Air Heat Pump configuration that all manufacturers build. These units feature a two-Stage compressor with an ECM Fan, available residentially in sizes from 2-6 Tons. Optional Desuperheaters are available for domestic hot water pre-heat. We will use this unit configuration as a reference because it is the most common type of residential water-to-air ground source heat pump sold in Ontario and Eastern Canada for Geothermal Heating and Cooling.
Below, We’ll show the AHRI performance chart for the 5 Series models. When viewing this data, it is essential to differentiate between the different rated system configurations. Notice along the top of the data table a variety of loop descriptions; “Water loop heat pump” systems are typically found in commercial buildings, using a boiler/cooling tower to manage the temperature of an internal building “water loop.” Water Source Heat Pumps installed on this water loop would extract and reject heat to and from this inner building loop. Open Loop systems, “Ground Water Heat Pumps,” are used on domestic water wells, directly extracting and rejecting heat to and from groundwater. Finally, Closed Loop “Ground Loop Heat Pumps” are used with a ground heat exchanger. The ground heat exchanger could be installed vertically (Vertical Bore), in a lake or pond, or horizontally trenched or bored. Any ground heat exchanger in Ontario’s climate would contain some form of freeze protection mixed with water to circulate through the closed circuit ground heat exchanger. Later in this article we’ll dive deeper into this chart and compare the ratings to another brand of equipment.
Other WaterFurnace Geothermal Heating and Cooling Brands
HVAC Manufacturers will often have multiple channel brands to broaden their access to the regional HVAC wholesale distribution marketplace. This “channel strategy” is common practice with North America’s large fossil fuel furnace manufacturers, and the method is no different with manufacturers of GSHP equipment. In Ontario and Eastern Canada, we can find other brands of WaterFurnace products, including GeoStar and GeoSmart. These alternate brands may have slightly different equipment offerings, and options may also vary. Generally speaking, though, the equipment is the same but with a different label.
Enertech Global & GeoComfort
Like Waterfurnace, Enertech Global has multiple brand labels for its equipment, including GeoComfort, Hydron Module, and Tetco. As the author of this post, Evolved Thermal Energy is a Distributor of Enertech GeoComfort products in Ontario and Eastern Canada. We are writing this article as a technical discussion about the comparative performance of Geothermal Heating and Cooling Heat Pump equipment.
GeoComfort Navigator YT Performance
As we displayed above for the WaterFurnace Series 5 product, for the comparable Enertech GeoComfort, we’ll use the Navigator YT product performance data as this model range most closely matches the Series 5. Both manufacturers have a wide range of equipment, including higher-performance and more cost-sensitive systems. Again, this model range is analyzed as it is the most typical geothermal heat pump equipment sold in Ontario and Eastern Canada Today.
Performance Comparison – Geothermal Heat Pump Installation
As most Geothermal Heat Pump Installation projects in Ontario and Eastern Canada will utilize a closed-loop Ground Heat Exchanger, we’ll compare the heat pumps’ performance on this type of loop system. Referring back to the charts presented above, we’ll use the example of the 4-ton GSHP. Enertech identifies this model as a YT048 while Waterfurnace chooses 049. The model number refers to nominal cooling capacity, 048 being 48,000 btu/hr or 4-tons (12,000 btu/hr is 1 ton).
Full Load Heating Performance – Ground Loop Heat Pump
The Enertech GeoComfort product has a FULL LOAD Heating Capacity of 39,900 Btu/hr on a Ground Loop. The capacity and performance are based on the ground loop conditions per AHRI 13256-1 (the test standard). In these conditions, the unit also shows a COP (Coefficient of Performance) of 4.3. Coefficient of performance is a measure of efficiency, essentially how much energy you get out of the system divided by how much work is input into the system (electrical power). We use electricity as input to the heat pumps to power the refrigeration process, which enables the movement of heat from the ground to the house and vice versa for cooling. In this case, a measured value of 4.3 is the same as saying 430% efficient. This means for every $1 you spend on electricity to power the system, it will provide $4.30 worth of thermal energy out into the home. Comparing this to the Waterfurnace 4-ton unit shows a FULL LOAD Heating Capacity of 38,200 with a COP of 4.0 (or 400%). We can see that the Enertech GeoComfort Navigator YT exceeds the output capacity and the efficiency of the WaterFurnace Series 5 comparable unit.
Part Load Heating Performance – Ground Loop Heat Pump
Part Load performance is more critical than full load performance because the system will spend more of its life running in a part load condition. What is Part Load? As we identified above, these Geothermal Heat Pumps have a Two-Stage compressor which means the system can reduce its capacity and, therefore, the energy input required when the full load capacity is not needed. Again, we can see that the Enertech GeoComfort Navigator YT part-load heating capacity on a ground loop is 32,000 Btu/hr at a COP of 4.9. That means this system is almost 500% efficient when under test conditions. The Waterfurnace Series 5 unit has a part load performance of 31,000 btu/hr at a COP of 4.4 (440%).
What does the difference in performance mean for you?
Simply put, it means more bang for your buck. The engineers at Enertech have strived to squeeze every inch of performance and capacity that they could out of this equipment to make the Navigator YT one of the most competitive offerings in this equipment category on the market. The Navigator has also been designed to be ultra-friendly for the installer, giving them the best opportunity to create the most effective installation for you.
What’s the Best Geothermal Heating and Cooling System in Ontario?
Concluding this article, we need to say that it’s not just the performance of the equipment at test conditions that matters. It is more important that the system be properly designed and fitted to your home specifically. Indeed, higher-performance equipment is advantageous, but it’s generally not what drives the overall efficiency of the final product. At Evolved Thermal Energy, our “Qualify Your Home” process ensures that we gather the correct information for our contractor network and can support them throughout the process. This ensures the highest efficiency installations that provide the best possible ROI for the homeowner.