METAMORPHOSIS: Building the Dome of a Home

through large, bulky ducting, hydronic air systems deliver total comfort without any ducting
whatsoever. Instead of ducting, insulated Pex plumbing pipe delivers 42 degree chilled water to
our 9 individual Hydro-Air units. Hydro-Air utilizes small, efficient hydronic fan coil wall units in
each room that distributes cooling energy from a geo-thermal unit or a standard outdoor air
conditioning unit. Hydro-Air‟s owner, Tom, was very helpful in our unusual endeavor in marrying
the Hydro-Air units with a geo-thermal system. www.bio-radiant.com
For its energy saving qualities, we chose to use a Florida Heat Pump geo-thermal unit. Florida
Heat Pump was founded in 1969 with the goal of producing the finest water source heat pumps to
conserve the Earth‟s energy and to protect the environment. Florida Heat Pumps can reduce your
heating and cooling costs by 30% to 60%. An added plus – it could be designed to heat our in
ground swimming pool. Unlike other systems that have to create heat to warm the pool, this
system takes the same excess energy from the house or earth and transfers it to the pool. A
thermostat regulates the temperature of the pool, making this one of the most efficient and
effective ways to heat a swimming pool.
In the nine years we have lived on Pensacola Beach, we have bought 4 air-conditioning units.
Storm surges and salt air reduce an outdoor unit‟s lifetime significantly. The system we installed
has the unit‟s components in the ground or inside the house. Adverse environmental conditions
will no longer affect the longevity of the unit to such a dramatic extent. The design also reduces
outdoor noise and air pollution – always a plus!
Florida Heat Pump developed the Vertical Energy System (Closed Loop) that we used. www.fhpmfg.com
This system utilizes the natural thermal properties of the earth by circulating water or an
antifreeze solution through a closed loop network of plastic pipe that is inserted into vertical wells.
The loops cool the water or Freon in the Florida Heat Pump. The Florida Heat Pump then chills
the air that is run through the Hydro Air units. We required 7 wells at a depth of 250‟ to run the
nine-loop Hydro-Air units. The nine Hydro-Air units cool using 6 zoned thermostats. The ground
at 250‟ is a fairly constant temperature of 70 degrees. Because we live on the coast and have a
tide each day, any warmth accumulating in the ground is dispersed as the tide arrives. So even
when it gets really hot here in the summer, the ground stays cool constantly.
Conventional air units use a fan to move ambient temperature air across the condenser coils of
the air-conditioner to cool the Freon from a hot gas to a cool liquid. Alternatively, geo-thermal
units use the constant ground temperature to bring water or antifreeze across the condensing
coils to change the Freon from a hot gas to a cool liquid. Because air temperature can exceed
105 degrees and ground temperature remains a fairly constant 70 degrees, GEO-THERMAL IS
300 TIMES AS EFFICIENT THAN THE CONVENTIONAL AIR UNITS. To grasp the significance
of the difference between chilled water‟s and chilled air‟s ability to cool, imagine standing in a pool
of 70 degree water. You would lose your body heat quickly. But, a person can stand in 70
degree air all day and not be chilled to the extent of being in the water for just moments.
An expected consequence of living on the coast is the permeating odor of mildew and fishiness.
Beach structures over a couple of years old have that distinct odor I have come to recognize as
hiding mildew. In our conventional house, the duct work always had gunk coming out of the vents
even with a bi-annual professional cleaning. Since the Hydro-Air units use plumbing pipe to
move the chilled water instead of duct work to move air, another source of the mold and mildew
growth is eliminated.
In a dome‟s shell, there are limited options for hiding a duct system. We maintained more
opportunities for interesting angles and curves in our wall and ceiling designs. One of the
avenues for sound travel was eliminated when duct work was not required by the Hydro-Air
design. The rooms were virtually sound proof with the polyurethane foam between the walls,
concrete floor above and below, and no reverberating duct work transmitting muted
conversations.
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