JHAP: I'm amazed by this as well Dwight. When we eventually build our home on our property we are definitely going to install geothermal. For us it will be as much about the cooling in the summer as the heating in the winter.
We have a 7 month heating season, a 3 month air conditioning season and a month each spring transition and fall transition.
Brettski: How would you rate the home insulation (particularly ceiling/attic) and airtight-ness (new word)
Our home is approximately 60 percent old construction 40 percent new construction. All the windows and doors are current double pane. The siding is relatively new on average and has taped one inch bead-board between the wall and siding.
Rangersedge: I'm curious as we would like to build some day and planned on a geo unit. I was under the impression that a land based unit was more efficient. Did you compare costs and efficiency of pond vs. land based units? If so, how did they compare? Thanks!
In our area a pond based system is far superior to a ground system. There are several reasons for the difference. We have ground water flow in our pond that keeps the water temp around the loop constantly refreshed and very stable. Our pond is a pit type pond dug into the ground water rather than an impounded surface water type pond. Our soil below the frost line isn't soil at all, but gravel. When a Geo loop is in the water the transfer surface is 100% while in soil there small gaps and voids in the soil which affects the transfer of heat.
Deaner: I see where some of you figured a pay off for the geo thermal in 4 and 5 years and in my mind I try to figure out how it is figured? If in one case the cost totaled out at $17,500. If after the credits you had around $12,000 to spread out over 5 years this would figure out to saving over $2000 per year. I would assume by this the propane cost was extremely high. The convenience of the geo thermal would be extremly nice. I am trying to convert everything over to my Heat pump situation. I know that during cold weather I would be having electic heat as the heat pump could not convert the cold air to heat. Now if my total heating and cooling was about $1800 per year and this is about $150 per month. Could you with geo thermal give me some figures on how much I could realize in geo thermal savings---please.
The savings are far greater in more extreme climates like Minnesota. See my comments to JHAP at the beginning of this post.
Try this calculator:
Geo Savings Calculator
