WaterFurnace International Inc., a leading manufacturer of residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional geothermal and water source heat pumps, and Tendril, provider of a cloud platform service for energy management, are partnering to deliver a solution that combines geothermal systems with home energy management.

Bob and Tim have arrived at the apartment house that they have been working at for the last several days. They’ve gone to the roof where the outdoor units are located. There are 60 heat pumps that use R-22 as the refrigerant. They start with Unit No. 2.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is working with the Geothermal Exchange Organization (GEO) and the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association (IGSHPA) on developing the first national certification standard for all primary personnel involved in the installation of geothermal heat pump (GHP) systems.

EnLink Geoenergy Services, a leading builder of geothermal heat pump (GHP) systems, announced that it has won a $3.8 million contract for a portion of the Ball State University GHP system in Muncie, Ind., said to be the largest geothermal energy system in the country.

Hill Phoenix Inc., a Dover Company, has announced the acquisition of Denmark-based Advansor A/S. The Danish company specializes in the design and manufacture of CO2 transcritical refrigeration and heat pump systems for supermarkets and light industrial applications.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced the availability of a report — Hybrid Ground-Source Heat Pump Installations: Experiences, Improvements and Tools — that DOE says demonstrates hybrid ground-source heat pumps (GSHP) as a viable solution to reduce energy use in commercial buildings.

Bob and Tim have arrived back at the apartment building where they have been working for several days inspecting and making necessary repairs to the building’s split-system heat pumps. Bob said, “Check the list for another unit that seemed to have a problem and let’s take a closer look at it.”

Since the tax credit program became available, all types of geothermal options have been on the minds of the building community. The earth loop, often referred to as the refrigerant loop, may be installed in three different configurations: diagonal, vertical, and horizontal.

The XT Series Models 024-048 packaged geothermal heat pumps are now standard with the all-aluminum microchannel air coil by Delphi®. According to the manufacturer, the all-aluminum coil utilizes 40 percent less material than a standard tube-and-fin copper/aluminum coil.

The use of geothermal heat pumps integrated with energy management systems will give homeowners and companies powerful new capabilities.