Geo-thermal input

[Mark from the Fort]

I going to tear down the ol' farm house and put a small rance with full basement in its place.

I really want geothermal, but know of nobody to ask what they think about theirs.

Anyone out there with in?, know of someone?, tell me anything you can.
THanks, Mark

 

[IH2444]

Neighbor had geothermal. got it put in about 15 years ago when hais house was built.

Cost a lot and he had trouble so he took it out and put in a high effeciency heat pump and claims to have lower electric bills.

Where are you located? Shallow water table? The water immersion types work better than the buried in the ground types(what my friend had)

 

[toolz]

I"ve had mine since the house was built in 1996. It"s probably the best decision we made while building. Heat/AC bills are surprisingly low, and we"ve had minimal problems. Mine is a horizontal loop (750 ft) since the vertical loops were not as common back then. If I had to do it over, I would go the other way. I would strongly recommend a LP or Nat. gas backup, since electric backup can get real expensive if the heat pump goes down. The only real peoblem we had was caused by the installer not using a strong enough ethanol mixture in the loop, and the water froze in the heat pump, stopping flow. Since the loop pumps are cooled by water flow, they overheated, melted the loop pipe near the pumps, and BOOOOM. Ethanol/water mix all over the utility room, and two screaming pumps. The installer fixed everything, and no problem since. If you can justify the expense, you won"t regret it.

 

[farmerjohn]

I have it in my home and highly recomend it. Yes it is expenxive to install but you get all your money back in savings within several years depending on heating costs.

 

[Heavy D]

I've had mine for about 10yrs, not had any problems with it at all. Best investment I probably made in my house. If I was to build another house I would put in geo-thermal a heat pump.

 

[IH2444]

Question for the geo thermal satisfied types with the dry loop install.

What kind of dirt? Does it stay damp?

My friends was in mostly slate rock /dirt mix and pretty dry.

Also what is your climate/location?

I think it all makes a difference.

If you have a shallow water table the wet loops ones work great.

 

[MarkB_MI]

If you don't have natural gas available at your location, then geothermal is probably your best bet. A friend of mine has it and is very happy with his installation. His is a closed loop system, meaning it doesn't discharge any water. Note that the installation costs are very high, and you're still going to use a lot of electricity. My friend's installation requires 400 amp service.

If you live in a cold climate, a backup generator capable of running the geothermal system is a must. Don't forget to figure that into the installation cost.

 

[Bill in IN]

Had mine a while now and wouldn't trade it. Highest light bill was $150. With kids that don't know that switches have an off position, like hour showers, computers, large screen TV's, and my welding and workshop- that's pretty good.

Have a 3 ton unit with a 4 ton horizontal closed loop doing about 3000 sq. ft.
cost about 15,000 but included lots of ductwork.

 

[IaGary]

I'm in Iowa and I have no backup generator and have had GeoThermal for 10 years now. Lost electric for 3 days once in 10 degree temps.

I do have a little portable kerosene heater for long outages.

No different than having gas heat. You can't run your furnace without electric either.

Yes a bigger generator would be needed to run the geothermal but how many have small generators to run there gas furnace.

The 400 amp service is just in case he has to run the backup resistance heat coils in the unit.

I have run my resistance backup heat about 36 hours in 10 years, so most times it is not using near that much electricity.

200 amp service is all I have but I only have a 4 ton system in my 3500 square foot house. 1700 upstairs and 1700 in the basement.

I would never build a new house without geothermal heat and air. 6 relatives and friends have built new since me and all have Geo and love it.

Gary

 

[atlarge54]

I know of two that recently needed the unit replaced at 13yrs old. They were both open loop pond units.
Again, how harsh is your climate? I'd take a look at the insulated concrete form type of construction. I've read where it's about $4/sq. ft. extra in construction cost. You might ask the geothermal installers how it would impact the size of the unit.

 

[MSD]

I'm a general contractor for new homes. The last 2 homes we did had 3 ton Geo units and the one we are just starting will be Geo. The first one we drilled 4 wells. Cost more than the "slinky" lines. The next one we used 3 "slinky" lines that we put in ourselves. With the digging it ran about a $1000 for the lines, digging, methanol and pump, so it saved quite a little over the well type system. The one we are doing now will have 4 "slinky" lines as it is a 4 ton system. One post mentioned ethanol for the anti freeze in the lines. Methanol is the preferred product. Use about a 25% mixture and it will be good. To strong a mix and it can reach a flash point at high temps. Regular anti freeze will work but flows slower and cost more. Our systems are on a 200 amp panel. Most of that goes to the heat strips and the water heater is also tied into that panel. The local electric companies give a pretty good rate break if you put it all on a seperate panel. Also, you can plumb a line to the water heater to heat your hot water when the air conditioner is running. Supposed to heat the water to 125 degrees but I'm not sure it gets there. The power company says you can pay it back in 5 years, depending on your home and usage. Also, they will give a 5% loan up to $10,000 to help with the cost of the system. You can get a 30% federal tax credit on the total system and here in SD, you can also get a property tax deduction with the system.

 

[Ohio Case]

As a Heating & Cooling contractor, I would strongly recomend a serious look @ the Geo systems. With the tax rebate that is now available, ( 30% of total installed cost, no cap)
The price tag is getting very close to the cost of a high end conventional system. Here are a couple web sites: www.bardhvac.com and www.waterfurnace.com , we have put in both, no problems with either one. Some electric coops offer financing and rebates.

 

[woodbutcher]

Mark,
We built our home 15 years ago here in northeast Texas. Geothermal and hot water circulating system were the two best features we put in this house. Breakdowns have been rare, and it is hard to find local companies that can do service work. We did not use anti-freeze in our system, just water. So far, no problems. We don't have back-up strips for heat. It's been an economical system and relatively trouble-free. Like MSD said, unit is supposed to preheat the water heater, but I don't think that works as well as it should, for some reason. It could be that there is a build-up of residue in the circulator pump on my system.
Butch