Green Home Taps the Earth for Geothermal Heating and Cooling

One of the key energy-efficiency strategies for the Proud Green Home of Louisville is the use of geothermal heating and cooling.

Sy Safi of UberGreen Spaces & Homes, the builder of Su Verde, or "About Green" in Italian, incorporated a range of strategies to ensure the home is comfortable as well.

Safi's high performance home in the Norton Commons development in Louisville is seeking certifications from multiple organizations, including DOE Zero Energy Ready Home, LEED, Passive House, National Green Building Standard, Living Building Challenge Petal Certification and the LBC Net Zero Certification.

In the North Village section of Norton Commons, about 1,800 homes and commercial spaces will use geothermal heating and cooling.

The high performance nature of the Proud Green Home made it a natural fit for a geothermal system, in this case a Hydron Module ground source heat pump from Enertech Global LLC that allowed the home to achieve the energy savings, comfort, and cleanliness, all in one.

"The home itself is very energy conservative and tightly built, so we were able to downsize the equipment compared to what a house of this size would normally require," said Ron Neal, a comfort designer with Allgeier Air in Louisville. "We also put in two-stage equipment, so most of the time it will run at a lower stage that costs less to operate, which also allows it to maintains a more even temperature and dehumidify in the summer better because it’s operating at that lower stage."

Neal designed the duct system slightly oversized to accommodate the variable speed of the ground source heat pump. That boosts energy efficiency and comfort so air flows through the filter most of the time. The filtrations system incorporates a 2-inch MERV-11 rated complete filter, which is highly efficient in removing contaminants from the home's airflow.