The cheapest heating is insulation. Geothermal heating is currently the second best. You might need two or three large units for such a house and that could add to the expense. Improved insulation could lower required heating capacity for less money not speaking about lower future energy consumption.
I don't remember how much we spent for our system and partial installation cost. We did a lot of work such as AC installation by ourselves and still spent in my estimation 25 to 30000. The 5 kW (about 4 ton) heat pump itself was 5000. We have both floor heating and forced air-cooling and that adds to the expense.
200 000 BTUs that is about $350 in energy cost (with geothermal) at coldest month at rate 0.041/kWh. Direct electric heat would be about 8 times as much.


Last edited by Ladia; 04/12/09 11:03 PM.
We live in a barn (aircraft hanger) converted to a house.
0.7 ac leaky pond.