Geothermal Heating and Cooling Repair, Installation and Loop Drilling
Residential and commercial geothermal across Arlington, Washington DC, Northern Virginia and Maryland
Looking for an energy efficient way to heat and cool your home?
Geothermal is the most efficient way to heat and cool a home or a commercial building in this climate, and the hardest system to get serviced when something goes wrong, because the fault can be in the ground as easily as in the equipment. Perry Aire has designed, drilled, installed and repaired geothermal systems for more than 30 years, for homeowners and commercial buildings across Arlington, Washington DC, Northern Virginia and Maryland, and we repair systems we did not install.
What is Geothermal?
A geothermal system moves heat rather than making it. A loop of pipe buried in the ground carries water to a heat pump inside the building; in winter the heat pump pulls heat out of the ground and into the building, and in summer it pulls heat out of the building and puts it back in the ground. The ground stays at a steady temperature year round, which is why the system uses far less electricity than a furnace and air conditioner doing the same work.
The earth loop is the part that decides whether a system performs. A loop sized and laid out for the building’s real load, whether in vertical wells on a tight lot or horizontal trenches where there is room, will outperform any other heating and cooling system available. A loop that is too small never catches up, the system falls back to electric auxiliary heat, and the owner blames the technology.
We design our own loops and drill them ourselves, vertical and horizontal, closed loop and open loop with well pumps, rather than handing the ground side to a subcontractor. More than 30 years of geothermal work in this region’s soil and rock is what that design draws on.
Geothermal has strong applications and some poor ones. Not every home, lot or business is a good fit, and we say so when it is not, and when a conventional high-efficiency system or a ductless system would serve the building better for less.
Repair, replacement, loop drilling and new installations, residential and commercial. Over 35 years in the trade, licensed in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia, with 24-hour service when a system is down in the heat or the cold.
Geothermal heating and cooling repair
Geothermal calls come in with a short list of symptoms: the house or building will not reach temperature, the system has switched itself to auxiliary heat and the electric bill shows it, the loop pump is cycling or has tripped, the loop has lost pressure, or the heat pump is throwing a fault code. Each symptom points at either the equipment inside or the loop outside, and a technician who works on geothermal reads them in that order instead of condemning a heat pump that has nothing wrong with it.
- Geothermal heat pump repair, every make and model, residential and commercial
- Loop pressure loss: finding the leak, repairing the loop, repressurizing and purging air
- Loop pumps and flow centers that cycle, trip or have failed
- Compressors, reversing valves, blowers and controls
- Systems stuck on auxiliary or emergency heat
- Desuperheaters and domestic hot water connections
- Well pumps on open-loop systems
Repairs on commercial systems are scheduled around the building’s hours wherever the work allows it, and a system that is down in the heat or the cold gets 24-hour service.
Geothermal heat pump replacement
The loop in the ground outlasts the equipment inside by decades. When a geothermal heat pump reaches the end of its life, the loop usually does not need to be touched: the new unit is matched to the existing loop’s capacity and flow, connected, and commissioned. Replacing the heat pump without redoing the loop is the most common geothermal job we do and the one most often misquoted as a whole new system.
Before any replacement we test the loop itself, flow, pressure and temperature in and out, so the new equipment is sized to what the ground can actually deliver rather than to the nameplate of the unit coming out.
New geothermal installations for homes
A geothermal system moves heat between the building and the ground: out of the ground in winter, into it in summer. Done right, it is the most efficient way to heat and cool a home in this climate. Done without enough loop, it never performs and the owner blames the technology. The earth loop is the design decision that matters most, and the system is only as good as the loop’s size, depth and layout for that lot and that load.
- Load calculation for the home, not a rule of thumb per square foot
- Loop design: vertical wells where the lot is tight, horizontal loops where there is room
- Drilling, loop installation, header and manifold work
- Heat pump selection and installation, forced air or hydronic
- Ductwork and zoning changes the new system needs
- Commissioning: flow, pressure, temperatures and controls checked and recorded
Geothermal has strong applications, and not every home or lot is a good fit. We say so when it is not, and when a conventional high-efficiency system or a ductless system would serve the house better for less.
Commercial geothermal installation and service
Commercial geothermal is a different job from residential: larger loop fields, multiple heat pumps on a common loop, building automation and controls, and schedules that cannot stop for the work. Perry Aire has installed and serviced commercial geothermal systems across Northern Virginia, Maryland and the District for over 30 years, and holds the mechanical, electrical and plumbing licenses the work touches, so the loop field, the equipment, the controls and the power all stay with one contractor.
- Commercial loop field design and drilling
- Multi-unit geothermal heat pump installation and replacement
- Loop field repair, pressure testing and purging
- Controls and building automation integration
- Maintenance contracts and seasonal service
Loop drilling and well work
The ground side of a geothermal system is where most of the cost and most of the performance sit, and it is the part most HVAC companies subcontract. We do it ourselves.
- Vertical wells for closed-loop systems
- Horizontal loops where the lot allows
- Open-loop systems and well pumps
- Loop repair, locating and fixing leaks in existing fields
- Header, manifold and flow center work
Where we work
Perry Aire is headquartered in Arlington and serves homes and commercial buildings across Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, McLean, Reston, Manassas and the rest of Northern Virginia, Washington DC, and Montgomery and Prince George’s counties in Maryland. Licensed in all three jurisdictions.
Geothermal heating and cooling: common questions
My geothermal system runs constantly and the house never gets comfortable. Is the heat pump failing?
Not necessarily. Low loop flow, a loop that has lost pressure or taken on air, or a loop that was undersized from the start all produce the same symptom. We test the loop before condemning the equipment.
The system is on auxiliary heat and the electric bill doubled. What happened?
Auxiliary heat is electric resistance backup, and the system falls to it when the heat pump cannot keep up or has faulted. It is a symptom, not the problem. The repair is finding why the heat pump stopped carrying the load.
Do I need a new loop when I replace the heat pump?
Almost never. A properly built loop lasts far longer than the equipment. We test the existing loop and match the new unit to it.
What does geothermal repair or installation cost?
Repair cost depends on whether the fault is in the equipment or the loop, and a loop leak costs more to find than to fix. Installation cost is driven by the loop: how much of it the load needs and whether it has to go down in wells or can go out horizontally. We quote after a site visit, not over the phone, because the loop decides the number.
Is geothermal right for my building?
It depends on the lot, the load and how long you plan to own the building. Geothermal has excellent applications and some poor ones, and we will tell you which yours is.
Do you service geothermal systems you did not install?
Yes. Every make, residential and commercial, closed loop and open loop.
Get a geothermal repair or installation estimate
Tell us whether the system is already in the ground or you are weighing a new one, the building type, and what it is doing or not doing. For a system that is down in the heat or the cold, call (703) 521-2226 rather than filling in the form.