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Cool Talk with Hartzell's | Your HVAC Questions, Answered!
The Dirt Under Your House Is A Battery
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Backyard Dirt As A Heat Battery
SPEAKER_01What if I told you that uh the ordinary dirt in your own backyard is actually this massive, completely untapped thermal battery?
SPEAKER_00Right. It really is.
SPEAKER_01Like a battery that if you harness it correctly, could slash your home heating, cooling, and hot water bills by, you know, as much as 70%.
SPEAKER_00Aaron Powell Yeah. I mean, it sounds totally like science fiction, but it's really just applied physics.
SPEAKER_01Exactly.
SPEAKER_00By using a geothermal heat pump, we're basically moving away from that uh brute force method of just burning fossil fuels to create heat.
SPEAKER_01Right, lighting stuff on fire.
SPEAKER_00Aaron Ross Powell Exactly, lighting stuff on fire. And instead, we're simply moving existing heat from the earth straight into your living room.
SPEAKER_01Well, welcome to the deep dive. If you're listening right now, you are someone who loves to learn how the hidden mechanics of the world actually work, you know, without getting bogged down and all the heavy jargon.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01And today we are looking at the realities of keeping that 70% savings promise alive. Because there's a catch.
SPEAKER_00There's always a catch, right?
SPEAKER_01Right. If you call an HVAC company to check on, like a standard gas furnace, it might cost you around 99 bucks. But if you look at the maintenance plans for a geothermal system, you might see numbers approaching$500 a year.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's a completely different ballgame.
SPEAKER_01So why is it so expensive? Like what is happening in your backyard and your basement that requires this incredibly elite specialized level of care?
SPEAKER_00Aaron Powell Well, to answer that, we're actually looking at a highly specific industry standard service document today. It's saved for an operation called Heart Cells Heat and Air.
SPEAKER_01Which is a company based out of central Oklahoma, right?
SPEAKER_00Yep, central Oklahoma. And this document, it outlines the exact uh 10-step protocol that a trained technician has to follow.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Powell Just to ensure the system doesn't just run, but actually runs efficiently enough to maintain those massive savings.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. Because if it's not efficient, you lose the whole point of geothermal.
Why Geothermal Maintenance Costs More
SPEAKER_01And the mission of this deep dive isn't just to read a checklist to you. We're going to decode the fascinating science, the physics, and honestly, the hidden math that these trained technicians use to literally pull heat out of the dirt.
SPEAKER_00Aaron Powell It really is fascinating when you get down to the nuts and bolts of it.
SPEAKER_01So let's start with uh what happens the moment a tech walks down into your basement. The very first thing they do, according to the document, is turn the heat pump on, force it to run at its highest factory blower speed, and its weight. Yeah. They wait for like five to ten minutes. I have to be honest, if I turn on my gas furnace, I mean I feel heat at the vent in about 30 seconds.
SPEAKER_00Oh, sure. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Why is the technician just standing around for 10 minutes billing you by the hour?
SPEAKER_00Aaron Powell Well, it's because thermodynamics uh it needs a moment to stabilize. I mean a geothermal system isn't just a burner igniting like your gas furnace. Right. It's this incredibly complex cycle of fluids. Yeah. You really have to ensure that the evaporator coil, the refrigerant, and the coaxial heat exchanger all reach their, you know, their proper operating temperatures.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Powell Okay, let's define coaxial heat exchanger really quickly for anyone who isn't uh an engineer.
SPEAKER_00Aaron Powell Oh, sure. So think of it as a tube within a tube.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00The water that just came in from the earth loop out in the yard that flows through the inside tube, and the refrigerant flows around it in the outer tube.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Powell So they don't actually mix.
SPEAKER_00Aaron Ross Powell Exactly. The heat just transfers across the metal wall between them without the two liquids ever physically touching each other.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Powell Got it. So we're waiting for that metal and all those fluids to reach a steady, stable temperature.
SPEAKER_00Aaron Powell Correct. And furthermore, you need enough time to pass to achieve good refrigerant oil circulation throughout the entire system.
SPEAKER_01Oh, so the compressor needs its lubrication.
SPEAKER_00Right. If a tech takes a diagnostic reading in, say, minute two, they're measuring a system that is essentially still waking up. The data will be completely inaccurate.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Powell But during this five to ten minute warm-up, the tech actually has to do something very specific to the house itself.
SPEAKER_00Yes, they do.
SPEAKER_01If you have different climate zones in your home, like an upstairs thermostat and a downstairs one, all those zone dampers must be forced wide open. Yep. And the desuperheater, which is the system's hot water assist, that has to be turned completely off.
SPEAKER_00Right, because opening the dampers ensures maximum airflow through the ductwork. You're removing air resistance variables. You want that air moving as freely as possible.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Powell And turning off the desuperheater.
SPEAKER_00That's all about isolating the primary circuit.
SPEAKER_01It's basically like trying to calculate your car's exact gas mileage, right?
SPEAKER_00That's a great way to put it.
SPEAKER_01Like if you want to know exactly how efficiently the engine is moving the wheels, you have to turn off the air conditioning, you unplug your phone charger, you turn off the radio.
SPEAKER_00You isolate the engine.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you isolate the engine. So here the technician shuts off the extra stuff so they can accurately measure the BTUs going strictly in and out of the ground loop. You don't want the hot water heater stealing some of that heat and you know completely messing up your math.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. And once that primary circuit is isolated and stabilized, the technician moves to the water side of the math.
SPEAKER_01Right. Steps two and three.
Stabilizing The System For Accurate Readings
SPEAKER_00Yeah. This is where they measure exactly what the Earth is delivering. They take these gauges and probes and insert them into what the document calls PT ports.
SPEAKER_01Which stands for pressure and temperature ports.
SPEAKER_00Right. So they check the water pressure going into the unit and the water pressure leaving the unit.
SPEAKER_01And you subtract the high from the low, and boom, you get your delta P, your pressure differential.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. And then they do the exact same thing for the temperature. Water temp entering, water temp leaving, subtract the high from the low, and you get your delta T.
SPEAKER_01The temperature differential.
SPEAKER_00Yes. And those raw physical readings, they are then converted into basically a story about heat transfer.
SPEAKER_01How so?
SPEAKER_00Well, the manufacturer provides this specification book. It takes that delta P, that pressure differential, and converts it to the exact water flow rate in gallons per minute or GPM.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I see.
SPEAKER_00So now you know exactly how much water is moving and how much the temperature of that water is changing as it moves.
SPEAKER_01Which brings us to this really fascinating formula in the document. Step four.
SPEAKER_00The heat of extraction.
SPEAKER_01Right. To calculate the heat of extraction, which is literally just how much heat you are successfully stealing from the dirt, you multiply that temperature change by the water speed.
SPEAKER_00The delta T times the GPM.
SPEAKER_01Right. But then you multiply all that by something called a fluid factor.
SPEAKER_00Yes, the fluid factor is critical here.
SPEAKER_01And the document gives two very specific numbers for this. If you have an open loop system running just pure water, the fluid factor is exactly 500.
SPEAKER_00Correct.
SPEAKER_01But if you have a closed loop system running a mix of water and antifreeze, the fluid factor actually drops to 485. Why do those liquids get like different mathematical multipliers?
SPEAKER_00Well, it all comes down to thermal mass and specific heat capacity.
SPEAKER_01Untack that a bit.
SPEAKER_00Sure. Pure water transfers heat incredibly efficiently. It has a very high specific heat, meaning it can absorb a whole lot of thermal energy before its own temperature actually rises.
SPEAKER_01Wow, okay.
SPEAKER_00And that efficiency is what earns it the higher multiplier of 500. But you know, if you live in a climate where a closed loop might freeze in the winter, you have to add anti-freeze.
SPEAKER_01Right, usually a glycol mix or something.
SPEAKER_00Exactly, a glycol mix. And that mixture is slightly thicker and it's slightly less thermally conductive than pure water.
SPEAKER_01Oh, so it just doesn't carry the heat as well.
SPEAKER_00Right. Because it isn't quite as good at carrying heat. It requires that lower multiplier of 485 just to make the final calculation accurate.
SPEAKER_01That makes total sense. So when the tech runs that whole formula, delta T times GPM times the fluid factor, they end up with a number of BTUs, British thermal units.
SPEAKER_00Yep. The standard measurement of heat energy.
SPEAKER_01And the document is super rigid about this. The result must fall within 10% of the manufacturer's specification for your specific machine.
SPEAKER_00Oh, absolutely. Because falling more than 10% under spec, I mean, that is not just a minor inefficiency. It is a massive red flag.
SPEAKER_01What does it actually mean, practically speaking?
SPEAKER_00It indicates a systemic failure. It tells the technician that you likely have a critical water flow issue, maybe a kinked pipe buried way out in the yard, or slow refrigerant leak, or even severe air distribution problems.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Powell Wow. So if you are the homeowner paying for this service, this is the exact moment the technician is proving whether or not you were actually getting that 70% savings you were promised.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. It's the moment of truth.
SPEAKER_01But I mean, the water math only really diagnoses the health of the subterranean part of the system, right? Like we've proven the dirt is doing its job and delivering heat to the basement. Right. But that doesn't matter at all if it's not reaching your living room. So how do we track the heat through the vents?
SPEAKER_00Well, that's step five. We shift to the air side formula, which calculates sensible heat.
SPEAKER_01Sensible heat meaning the heat you can actually feel.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. It's the actual temperature change you feel in the air. So the formula here is the delta T of the air. That's the temperature difference between the air entering the return vent and the air blowing out of the supply vent.
SPEAKER_01Okay, air temp difference. Got it.
SPEAKER_00Right. And you multiply that by CFM, which is cubic feet per minute of airflow, and then you multiply that by a constant of 1.08.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so that gives you the actual heat blowing through your ductwork. But there's a really specific detail here that caught my eye. Oh yeah. Yeah. The source notes that this sensible BTU number includes not just the heat extracted from the ground, but also the BTUs coming off the compressor, the pumps, and the blower motor itself.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's a really important point. The machine generates heat simply by operating.
SPEAKER_01Just from running.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. Friction, electrical resistance, the mechanical movement in the compressor, all of that creates its own thermal energy.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I guess that makes sense. So in the winter, when you're in heating mode, that's actually like a bonus. The heat from the motor just gets added to the heat from the earth to warm your house.
SPEAKER_00It does. But think about the summer.
SPEAKER_01Right. In the summer, when you want air conditioning, that mechanical heat is totally fighting against you.
Water Side Math For BTUs
SPEAKER_00Exactly. The system has to work slightly harder to overcome its own internal heat before it can even start to cool the air for your house.
SPEAKER_01Which is exactly why this precision maintenance is so crucial.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You are constantly managing these tiny thermal penalties.
SPEAKER_00That's right. Every inefficiency compound.
SPEAKER_01So let's talk about the electrical side. Because in step six, the tech also has to check the electrical draw, the volts and amps against the manufacturer's range.
SPEAKER_00Yep. The electrical heartbeat of the system.
SPEAKER_01But I want to push back on a very specific, quirky detail from the text.
SPEAKER_00Okay, go for it.
SPEAKER_01It explicitly warns the technician, and I'm quoting here amps will increase when loop temperature increases.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01Now amps are the measure of electrical current, basically the effort the machine is exerting, right?
SPEAKER_00Exactly. It's the workload.
SPEAKER_01So does this mean the hotter the earth loop gets out in the yard, the harder the system's electrical heart actually has to pump?
SPEAKER_00Yes. Think of the thermodynamics here, like uh riding a bicycle up a hill.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00In the summer, your goal is to pull heat out of your house and push it into the ground. But as the summer drags on month after month, the ground around your buried pipes gets warmer and warmer from all the heat you keep dumping into it.
SPEAKER_01Because you're just storing it in the dirt.
SPEAKER_00Right. So the thermal hill you're pedaling up gets steeper and steeper.
SPEAKER_01Ah, so the compressor has to physically work harder, drawing more electrical amperage to force that heat out of your house and into a ground loop that is already totally saturated with heat.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. The temperature gradient is working against you. And conversely, in the dead of winter, if the ground loop gets too cold from you constantly extracting heat from it, it becomes harder to pull what little heat is left.
SPEAKER_01And again, the electrical lamps go up.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. It is this beautiful, if slightly unforgiving, physical balancing act.
SPEAKER_01Wow. Which brings us to the physical components themselves, because you know, math and electrical readings can diagnose a problem, but the physical hardware is where the system literally lives or dies.
SPEAKER_00Oh, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01And this is where the wrong chemical cleaner can like destroy your entire investment. Let's look at steps seven and eight.
SPEAKER_00Right. Moving from theoretical physics to the gritty physical reality of HVAC maintenance. First, the technician inspects the air filter and the evaporator coil.
SPEAKER_01The tech states the filter should be replaced by the tech every time the unit is serviced, but it really stresses that homeowners need to do this throughout the year too.
SPEAKER_00Well, yeah, because restricted airflow ruins all those delicate math equations we just spent time calculating.
SPEAKER_01Totally. But the major warning in the document is actually about cleaning the indoor coil. It is incredibly clear about this. You must use non-acidic cleaners and thoroughly rinse the coil because acid will eat right through them.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Those heat exchange coils, they are designed with incredibly thin, highly conductive metals, usually aluminum or copper.
SPEAKER_01Right, because they need to transfer heat fast.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. Their job is to transfer heat as rapidly as possible, not to withstand harsh, corrosive environments. So if a well-meeting homeowner decides to clean the coil with an aggressive acid-based cleaner just to remove some dust, they are totally compromising the structural integrity of the metal. Yeah. They might get a shiny coil for a few weeks right before it develops these microscopic pinhole leaks and just vents hundreds of dollars worth of refrigerant straight into the atmosphere.
SPEAKER_01Yikes. And that chemical sensitivity applies to the drain pan as well, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00It does. The drain pan catches all the condensation that drips off the cold coil in the summer.
SPEAKER_01Right. And the tech has to clean out the dirt, the biological growth, and sediment, especially after new home construction where drywall dust just gets everywhere.
SPEAKER_00Oh, drywall dust is the worst for these systems.
SPEAKER_01But the source explicitly warns to avoid using chlorine in any drain pan treatment.
SPEAKER_00Right. No bleach.
SPEAKER_01Using chlorine in the drain pan is it's like using road salt to melt ice on your driveway. Like, sure, the salt gets rid of the ice really quickly, but it aggressively rusts out the undercarriage of your car in the process.
SPEAKER_00That's a perfect analogy.
SPEAKER_01Just because bleach kills bacteria doesn't mean the highly calibrated copper and aluminum machinery is actually going to survive the cleaning.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. The maintenance requires a real surgical touch. You have to remove the biological buildup without degrading the metals.
SPEAKER_01So, okay, once the core heating and cooling components are mathematically verified and safely cleaned, the technician moves to the geothermal bonus features.
SPEAKER_00Step nine.
SPEAKER_01Right. These are the perks that separate a geothermal setup from, you know, a standard air conditioning unit sitting outside your window.
SPEAKER_00And the most prominent bonus feature is the desuperheater we mentioned earlier.
SPEAKER_01The hot water assist.
Airflow Heat Output And Electrical Draw
SPEAKER_00Right. The tech turns it back on for testing. It scavenges thermal energy that would otherwise just be rejected into the earth.
SPEAKER_01And dumps it into your hot water tank. The source actually says a properly running desuperheater can save you significant money.
SPEAKER_00It really can. So the technician lets it run and checks the water temperature. Normal operation is a temperature difference, a delta T, between the water going in and out of just five to fifteen degrees.
SPEAKER_01I mean, five to fifteen degrees, that doesn't sound like a massive temperature swing at all.
SPEAKER_00It isn't, but the key is that it is constant. Over hours, days, and months, that five to fifteen degree assist drastically reduces the amount of electricity or gas your hot water heater needs to consume just to get your shower water up to 120 degrees.
SPEAKER_01Okay, I see.
SPEAKER_00However, the source notes that if that delta T is extremely high, you have a problem.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, the text lists a few culprits for a high delta T here. The pump might be turned off, a fuse might be blown, or the heat exchanger is blocked with lime buildup.
SPEAKER_00Yep, lime scale.
SPEAKER_01And here is a wild detail that completely contradicts what we just learned about cleaning the air coils.
SPEAKER_00I know exactly what you're gonna say.
SPEAKER_01Unlike the main air coils where acid is strictly forbidden, if the D superheater heat exchanger is blocked with lime, the document actually instructs the technician to flush it with a mild acid solution. Like, why the double standard?
SPEAKER_00It really highlights how localized the maintenance has to be. The desuperheater is interacting directly with your home's domestic tap water.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00And tap water carries dissolved minerals like calcium and lime. Over time, the heat causes those minerals to bake onto the walls of the heat exchanger, creating this insulating layer of scale that literally blocks heat transfer.
SPEAKER_01Oh wow. So you have to use a mild acid to dissolve that scale.
SPEAKER_00Yes, but you have to carefully isolate it from the rest of the system so it doesn't touch the delicate aluminum air coils.
SPEAKER_01It really is a chemical tightrope.
SPEAKER_00It absolutely is.
SPEAKER_01And that brings us to the final step of the document, step 10. Which honestly feels like the, I don't know, the crescendo of the whole operation, repressurizing the ground loop.
SPEAKER_00This is critical. Because the loop is a closed plastic circuit buried underground. Any tiny expansion of those plastic pipes over years, or even microscopic off-gassing of the fluid inside, it gradually lowers the internal pressure. And if the pressure drops too low, the fluid won't circulate effectively, and your heat transfer just plummets.
SPEAKER_01So they have to add water pressure back into the subterranean loop. And the process they describe is surprisingly analog.
SPEAKER_00It really is.
SPEAKER_01They just use your house's standard water pressure. Like the technician hooks up a regular garden hose to an outside spigot or a sink, they run the water at full pressure to get all the air out of the hose. Yeah. Then they attach a specialized repressurization tool to the hose, stick it into the PT plug on the heat pump, and just force house water into the ground loop until it hits the target.
SPEAKER_00And that target pressure per the water furnace recommendations cited in the text is 40 to 70 psi, or pounds per square inch.
SPEAKER_01But the most vital part of this entire procedure happens next. Once that pressure is reached, the source says the technician has to, and I love this, burk the loop pumps.
SPEAKER_00Which is a highly technical industry term, but completely accurate to the physics.
Cleaning Rules That Prevent Damage
SPEAKER_01They literally loosen a screw on the pump shaft until air and debris physically spit out, wait for a steady stream of water, and then tighten it back up. Yep. It is exactly like burping a baby to get trapped air out of its stomach. Only in this case, a stomach ache is a catastrophic failure of a massive underground thermal battery. So why is trapped air so deadly to this system?
SPEAKER_00Well, it causes a phenomenon called cavitation.
SPEAKER_01Cavitation.
SPEAKER_00Right. Air compresses, water does not. So if the pump's spinning impeller hits a pocket of trapped air, the resistance suddenly vanishes, causing the impeller to overspin.
SPEAKER_01Oh wow.
SPEAKER_00Furthermore, the rapid pressure changes caused microscopic bubbles to collapse violently against the middle of the pump. It literally pits and destroys the impeller from the inside out.
SPEAKER_01That's insane. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So burping removes that fatal air pocket before it can cause structural damage.
SPEAKER_01Which brings us back to the question we asked at the very beginning of the deep dive. Why does a geothermal checkup cost so much more than a standard furnace check? Right. A 10-step checklist like this with fluid factors, chemical tightropes, and system burping, I mean, it's totally useless without an elite professional.
SPEAKER_00The context matters deeply here. The document we are analyzing isn't just theory, it is the actual operating procedure for Dave Hartzel of Hartzell's Heat and Air.
SPEAKER_01Right, the real world maestro.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. His credentials list him as IGS HPA accredited, which is the specific, highly rigorous professional certification required for ground source heat pump systems. And he's a climate master GLE dealer.
SPEAKER_01Who won Best Newcomer of the Year in 2016 from air product supply. And his service area is all of central Oklahoma and beyond. The text says, have experience, we'll travel.
SPEAKER_00He knows his stuff.
SPEAKER_01And looking at his specific preventative maintenance agreement pricing tiers, it really solves the mystery of the cost.
SPEAKER_00It does. Let's break that down.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So Heart Cell offers a Geo Basic Plan for$360 a year, a Geo Plus plan for$428 a year, and the top-tier Geo360 plan for$499 a year.
SPEAKER_00And if you look closely at what is included in those tiers, there's a really profound economic detail hidden in there.
SPEAKER_01What's that?
Desuperheater Testing And Scale Removal
SPEAKER_00That critical repressurization step we just discussed, hooking up the hose, pushing a loop back to 40 to 70 PSI, and burping the pumps to prevent cavitation.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That specific life-saving service is only included in the top-tier$499 GO360 plan.
SPEAKER_01Oh, wow. It's not in the basic at all.
SPEAKER_00Not in the basic. It's not even in the plus.
SPEAKER_01Wow. It really highlights exactly how vital, time-consuming, and specialized that single maintenance step is.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. It is the premium service that ensures the long-term survival of the buried plastic loop that makes the whole system possible in the first place. That's a great way to think about it. Servicing a geothermal heat pump isn't unrecognizably different from servicing a conventional EC unit. I mean, there are still coils, blowers, and air filters. Yeah. But the precision required is exponentially higher.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Powell Because skipping the manufacturer's checklist or ignoring the fluid density factors or failing to burp the loop, it leads directly to costly tallbacks.
SPEAKER_00Yes. And more importantly, it completely destroys that promise of 70% energy savings.
SPEAKER_01Right. If your loop loses pressure or your coil is just caked in dust, you are paying a massive premium for a system that is honestly performing worse than a cheap window unit.
Loop Pressure Burping And Plan Pricing
SPEAKER_00It demands a deep appreciation for the thermodynamics happening right beneath your lawn. You are quite literally interfacing with the thermal mass of the planet.
SPEAKER_01Which requires respect, rigorous math, and very precise execution.
SPEAKER_00It really does.
SPEAKER_01It does. And uh that leaves us with a final thought for. To ponder long after you finish listening today. We've spent this time talking about the microscopic precision required to move heat out of the dirt and into your home. But take a step back. If the mundane dirt right beneath your feet, like just the plain patch of grass in your own backyard, holds the exact stable thermal energy needed to drastically reduce your home's reliance on the external power grid. Yeah. How much untapped invisible potential is literally sitting dormant outside your window right now, just waiting for the right loop of pressurized water to unlock it.
SPEAKER_00Well, it certainly frames the natural world around us in a much more powerful light.
SPEAKER_01It really does. Well, thank you so much for joining us on this deep dive. Keep questioning the hidden mechanics of your world. Keep looking for the elegant solutions, and we will catch you next time.