A modern semi-detached house in Tampere harnesses geothermal energy efficiently
Petri Poikola and Eetu Hannuksela’s new modern semi-detached house, located in Tampere, was ready for occupancy at the beginning of 2018. Each end of the two-story, two-family house has about 120 m² of heated space. A Gebwell geothermal system was chosen already during the construction phase.
What makes this project special?
“The heat collection piping draws energy from a single shared borehole about 225 meters deep. However, each apartment has its own geothermal heat pump,” says Petri Poikola, Regional Manager for Southwest and Western Finland at Gebwell.
Energy efficiency with the Aries IoT inverter heat pump
This semi-detached house was the first site in Finland where two Gebwell Aries IoT inverter heat pumps, equipped with top-tier features, were installed. 
The variable-speed compressor of the Aries heat pump adapts precisely to the energy needs of a semi-detached house.
The Aries heat pump offers a heating output of 1.5 to 7.5 kilowatts, while the specific heat loss per apartment is less than 4 kilowatts. These Finnish-made Aries inverter heat pumps efficiently heat both the apartments and the domestic hot water. Thanks to inverter control, the heat pump always operates at the optimal power level, maximizing efficiency.
The Aries heat pump, utilizing IoT technology, connects automatically to the secure Gebwell Smart monitoring system upon installation. The monitoring is hosted in the Siemens Mindsphere cloud platform, which offers top-level data security. If needed, Gebwell’s service team can remotely check the system and assist in troubleshooting. Through the cloud service, updates and new features can also be installed across all devices at once, allowing the heat pump to evolve during its lifecycle—something new in the heat pump industry.
“After installation, the heat pumps were quickly commissioned via a wireless connection from the factory,” recalls Hannuksela.
The end user can control the Aries heat pump through the device’s local network using the Gebwell Smart app, either from home or remotely via smartphone or other smart devices.
“I personally use and adjust our heat pump via the mobile app. It’s extremely convenient!” says Petri Poikola.
Under-floor cooling enhances living comfort
The semi-detached house in Tampere is also equipped with a under-floor cooling system that provides energy-efficient cooling. Compared to fan coil systems, floor cooling offers more uniform temperature control throughout the house. In this project, the floor heating and cooling circuits are divided into two zones; humid areas can be heated while other rooms are cooled during summer.
The system uses the existing hydronic underfloor heating pipes for cooling, so no separate cooling distribution units are needed. The under-floor cooling is completely silent and draft-free, creating optimal thermal comfort year-round and increasing overall living comfort.
“Our home has tiled floors throughout, so we haven’t had to worry about condensation in the floor structure. The under-floor cooling system has performed very efficiently. It’s also great that we don’t have any extra visible devices in the rooms,” adds Petri Poikola.
“This summer’s heatwave really put the cooling system to the test,” Eetu Hannuksela notes. The room temperature in the semi-detached house remained around +22°C even during the hottest days.
Effortless and cost-effective geothermal heating
Who would Eetu Hannuksela recommend the Gebwell solution to?
“I could recommend a geothermal project to anyone—especially the Aries heat pump,” says Hannuksela, and continues:
“We’ve easily achieved our savings expectations and have enjoyed the ease of geothermal heating.”