If you are already bought into the idea that climate change is a real threat to Truckee, if you own a home in Truckee, and if you want to be part of the solution, this article is for you. 

As Truckee’s greenhouse gas inventory has shown, the single largest carbon emissions source comes from the heating of our homes and businesses in the winter. To tackle this problem, the obvious solution is heat pump technology. There are two categories of heat pumps: air source and ground source. Air source heat pumps (ASHPs) efficiently extract heat from the outside air (even in winter) and pump it into the building. Ground source heat pumps (GSHPs) extract heat from the ground below the frost line (even more efficiently) and pump it into the building. This article makes the case that even though GSHPs have higher upfront costs, when you take into account lifetime costs, they come out on top. As you will discover as you read on, there are other advantages for GSHPs in Truckee’s unique climate that make this technology the clear winner for many buildings in our town. 

Read on to the end to find out how you can sign up to explore having this amazing technology installed in your home or place of business.

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Proven Technology for Heating and Cooling

GSHPs, sometimes referred to as geothermal heat pumps, operate on a simple yet highly effective principle: they harness the relatively constant temperature of the earth to provide heating in the winter and cooling in the summer. Beneath the frost line, the ground maintains a stable temperature year-round, making it an ideal medium for heat exchange.

GSHP heat exchangers can be implemented as a horizontal trench with a coil of hose laid in the trench like a slinky. This type of heat exchanger is a good solution if there is a lot of land available for the building. This could be a field or a large parking lot, but in Truckee where land is expensive, vertical heat exchangers are a more appropriate solution in most applications. Vertical heat exchangers are created by drilling vertical bore wells, then inserting a closed loop into the hole using the same kind of drills used for creating water wells. From the bore wells (more than one may be needed depending on the size of the building and how well insulated it is) the loop is connected to the inside the building envelope where the heat pump extracts heat from the loop in the winter and adds heat to the loop in the summer. 

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This is not new technology. GSHPs have been successfully used for decades across the world, from Scandinavia to the Midwest United States to Truckee itself. Their reliability has been demonstrated in harsh climates with long, cold winters and warm summers, making them particularly suitable for Truckee’s high-altitude environment where temperatures fluctuate significantly between seasons.

The cost-effectiveness of GSHPs in Truckee was specifically analyzed in a study titled Monitored Ground Source Heat Pump Performance in Northern California by Rainer et al., conducted in 1996-97. The study found that GSHP systems installed in Truckee were cost-effective and performed well. Notably, those systems—installed in homes in Tahoe Donner—are still running and performing effectively today. Additionally, Alder Creek Middle School’s heating and cooling systems operate on a GSHP system, which continues to deliver reliable performance, demonstrating the long-term value of this technology.

Heat Pumps Rather Than Air Conditioners

The increasing frequency of wildfires with their resulting smoke and rising summertime temperatures have made air conditioning more popular in Truckee. Air conditioners are simply one-way heat pumps. Rather than installing a traditional air conditioner that only provides cooling during the summer, building owners can install a GSHP or an ASHP, which provides both heating and cooling year-round, offering a more comprehensive and sustainable solution

Energy Efficiency: A Game-Changer for Truckee’s Cold Winters and Increasingly Hot Summers

One of the standout benefits of GSHPs is their exceptional energy efficiency. These systems can deliver three to five units of heating or cooling energy for every unit of electricity consumed, far outperforming traditional heating systems such as fossil gas furnaces or electric baseboards. This efficiency translates directly into lower energy bills for homeowners.

Even compared to ASHPs, GSHPs are more efficient because they are extracting heat from water that is being pumped through the ground rather than from the ambient air. 

Additional Advantages Over Air Source Heat Pumps

As mentioned, GSHPs are more efficient than ASHPs, but there are additional benefits in our climate, especially in the areas of Truckee with a deeper snowpack. It can be a challenge to find a practical place to site the external compressors required for ASHP systems due to the deep winter snowpack and the risk of ice and snow shedding from rooflines damaging the compressor. These challenges are avoided entirely with GSHPs, as the system’s components are located within the building envelope and the ground loop is buried safely below the surface.

Long-Term Cost Savings and Investment Value

Truckee homeowners can benefit from federal, state, and local incentives for renewable energy systems, which significantly reduce the initial cost of GSHP installation. These programs are in constant flux, so check for the latest and greatest rebates on resolvrebates.com, a service developed by a Truckee local that will help you find rebates for building electrification, then automatically file for those rebates! 

Interested? Sign up!

Truckee’s unique combination of cold winters, warm summers, and environmentally conscious residents makes it an ideal candidate for widespread GSHP adoption. Recognizing this potential, 100% Renewable Truckee is now collecting the contact information of homeowners interested in GSHP systems (renewabletruckee.org/gshpsignup). This list will be used to incentivize busy out-of-town drilling companies to come to Truckee and drill bore wells for multiple GSHP systems in one go. This will make the installation of these GSHP systems even more accessible and affordable for Truckee homeowners. Putting your name on this list won’t obligate you to follow through. You will get an estimate (hopefully from more than one drilling company!) before making any commitment. Also, this contact information will only be used for this purpose.

A Sustainable Future for Truckee

As Truckee looks to the future, embracing GSHPs is a practical and forward-thinking step. This proven technology offers unmatched efficiency, cost savings, and environmental benefits, making it an ideal solution for the town’s climate and values. By investing in GSHPs, Truckee can reduce its carbon footprint, lower energy costs, and set an example for other mountain communities seeking sustainable solutions.

For homeowners and policymakers alike, the choice is clear: ground source heat pumps are not just a smart investment—they are a crucial component of Truckee’s sustainable future.

And remember, you can sign up to explore ground source heat pumps for your home or business at renewabletruckee.org/gshpsignup.

Matt Tucker

Co-lead 100% Renewable Truckee 

15+ year full time resident of Truckee