Geothermal

Posted by on January 23, 2009, 10:23 pm

I placed a Waterfurnace Geo. system in my house - in June 2008. It
was 2 systems - a 2 ton unit and a 4 ton unit. (3600+ sq ft. house) -
the A/C cost went down from approx. $400 month to $100 month and the
heating bill has been around $150/month. The previous propane costs
were around $5500 per year. I researched for approx. 3 years and
never could find straight numbers on the savings. The A/C is awesome
and the heat is almost too hot - recommend getting a humidifier w/ the
system. I paid approx. $28k for both sys. installed. So, essentially
i will pay less then $1000 to heat AND cool my house. A big
difference from the 5-6k i spent last year.

Posted by dpb on January 24, 2009, 12:15 am

pewty@comcast.net wrote:

> I placed a Waterfurnace Geo. system in my house ...
> ... I researched for approx. 3 years and
> never could find straight numbers on the savings. ...

I don't understand why not. I installed a WaterFurnace system in early
90's -- the WaterFurnace sizing calculations and estimates of heat and
cooling loads were almost identical to the actual performance as well as
the data from the Oklahoma State geothermal research group and TVA were
quite accurate as to energy efficiencies and comparative inputs relative
to conventional systems. That was almost 20 years ago--can't imagine
they're not at least as good now.

BTW, I'm not the least surprised by your experience...

--

Posted by jamesgangnc on January 25, 2009, 10:01 pm

Yea, and you paid about 20k more than the two conventional systems cost.
They will last maybe 10 years if you are lucky. Servicing them will be far
more expensive. So tell me again what you saved.

>I placed a Waterfurnace Geo. system in my house - in June 2008. It
> was 2 systems - a 2 ton unit and a 4 ton unit. (3600+ sq ft. house) -
> the A/C cost went down from approx. $400 month to $100 month and the
> heating bill has been around $150/month. The previous propane costs
> were around $5500 per year. I researched for approx. 3 years and
> never could find straight numbers on the savings. The A/C is awesome
> and the heat is almost too hot - recommend getting a humidifier w/ the
> system. I paid approx. $28k for both sys. installed. So, essentially
> i will pay less then $1000 to heat AND cool my house. A big
> difference from the 5-6k i spent last year.
>

Posted by dpb on January 26, 2009, 10:22 am

jamesgangnc wrote:

> Yea, and you paid about 20k more than the two conventional systems cost.
> They will last maybe 10 years if you are lucky. Servicing them will be far
> more expensive. So tell me again what you saved.

...
I can't judge what his installed cost would have been for a conventional
system.

I will say my experience has been the system has been in place
approaching 20 years so far and is still working w/ no major maintenance
costs to date.

It's been long enough I can't even recall what the trenching costs were
but I'm quite certain it has recouped its additional costs as compared
to conventional (gas wasn't available at the location at the time which
was a major decision factor, of course).

I won't say they're the solution for everybody but I will say they're
well worth consideration.

--

Posted by on January 27, 2009, 11:18 am

> jamesgangnc wrote:

> > Yea, and you paid about 20k more than the two conventional systems cost=

> > They will last maybe 10 years if you are lucky. =A0Servicing them will =

be far

> > more expensive. =A0So tell me again what you saved.

> ...
> I can't judge what his installed cost would have been for a conventional
> system.
> I will say my experience has been the system has been in place
> approaching 20 years so far and is still working w/ no major maintenance
> costs to date.
> It's been long enough I can't even recall what the trenching costs were
> but I'm quite certain it has recouped its additional costs as compared
> to conventional (gas wasn't available at the location at the time which
> was a major decision factor, of course).
> I won't say they're the solution for everybody but I will say they're
> well worth consideration.
> --

It is very difficult to find experienced people to install and
maintain these systems. The basic idea is a good one but until the
volume of installations has increased there are risk factors.
Certainly some people have had excellent results but there are horror
stories as well. If you have some technical savy then you would be in
a better position to have one. But imho they are not prime time for
the average harry homeowner.

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Re: Geothermal	January 23, 2009, 10:24 pm