GeoThermal Systems - Worth the $$?

[Nissan197]

Thinking about having a GeoThermal system for the new house, but am unsure if it is worth the extra $$ up front. I live in Kansas and the coldest it usually gets around here is single digits a week or two a year. During the summer it usually is in the 90's with high humidity. Once in a while it will get into the low 100's. I was wondering if a GeoThermal system is worth it with all the house wrapping and other high efficiency windows, insulation and other items available in today's market? Also looking at radiant heating. Would like to hear from anyone who has experience in either/both. Thanks.

 

[Tig]

I've had an open loop geothermal for 16 years. It has been great. I draw from a well (20L/min) and return the water to a 75' drain pipe burried in the yard. The air from the furnace is not very hot so it moves a lot of air to make up for it. The ductwork in my house is oversized to minimize the noise of the air flow but you still hear it. It's not as hot here in the summer so the furnace cools by running water through a radiator. The compressor does not run in summer. When I built may house my other options were oil or electric. There was an incentive program at the time I bought it so the pay back on the investment was a couple years. My furnace is not very sophisticated so I am able to maintain it myself. I've had to clean valves a couple times and replaced the fan motor once. Other than that it's just vacuum the dust and oil the blower.
There were many in this neighbourhood 15 years ago. Mainly two brands.I would estimate that at least half of them are gone and were replaced with gas because of water supply problems. I would suggest that you be there when they test the well.

 

[DieselPower]

Depends on what type you are talking about. I have a geothermal system I installed myself about 10 years ago. Mine does not use water though, just airflow. It is nothing more than a coil of plastic pipe about 3 1/2 feet down in my back yard. On the inside of the house the ends of the pipe come through my basement wall. One pipe has a fan in it which draws air out of the pipe at one end of the basement and the other is at the opposite end of the basement and is the air return. Simple system that works well for me. Since it is a constant temp underground I only have to heat my house above the temp coming out of the pipe. In the summer it greatly cuts down on the amount the A/C has to run. Since I did all the work myself it really didn't cost me much more than the pipe, blower fan and fuel to run my backhoe. I even got a tax credit the year I installed it.

 

[techman]

I just completer 1 year since the installation of a geothermal system. Here in PA our weather is similar. I have 2 zones with 2 units on a single closed loop system for a 2800 sq-ft house.

The system has been great, saving about $500/yr for the first year. This is in spite of increases in energy costs. Closed loop systems are not quite as efficient as a well based system, but generally much more reliable. As far as savings. it depends on what it will cost you. In this area a geo system is about two times the cost of a hi efficiency air source heat pump. Look at the cost as the differential over a normal system that would be installed. The payback is relatively long, but still a good investment. There are added benefits as well, such as no defrost on the system and generally higher comfort, due to warmer air temperatures from the discharge.

If you asked me I would say absolutely go for it, but it is your money.

paul

 

[cp1969]

I looked into ground source heat pumps when I built in 2003 and concluded that it would take 13 years to break even.

Insulation is the best investment you can make.

 

[thcri]

Thinking about having a GeoThermal system for the new house, but am unsure if it is worth the extra $$ up front. I live in Kansas and the coldest it usually gets around here is single digits a week or two a year. During the summer it usually is in the 90's with high humidity. Once in a while it will get into the low 100's. I was wondering if a GeoThermal system is worth it with all the house wrapping and other high efficiency windows, insulation and other items available in today's market? Also looking at radiant heating. Would like to hear from anyone who has experience in either/both. Thanks.

Have you installing contractor contact the manufacture of the equipment you are planning on using. They have a software program that will give you the costs of operation of what is available to you in your area. Then you can make a better decision. Also we install a lot of systems using a geo-thermal system and radiant. The newer Waterfurnace I believe has that feature built right into it. We have not used it in any of our installations yet as we typically have had larger systems and use a water to water system for the radiant.

murph

 

[Nissan197]

I am going to be looking at the closed loop and will decide if trenching is better or drilling to place the loops. The house we will hopefully be building is 2750 sq feet. Just in the preliminary stages. Like I said before with energy efficient windows, spray-in insulation, etc might be cheaper in the long run to just go with an energy efficient furnace and A/C. Will be doing a lot of research on the geothermal system.

 

[heehaw]

hey DieselPower: what diameter pipe did you put in the ground, and how many feet?

heehaw

 

[heehaw]

what size house are you talking about? and how long do you think you'll stay there?
heehaw

 

[DieselPower]

hey DieselPower: what diameter pipe did you put in the ground, and how many feet?

heehaw

400 feet of 6 inch pipe. This was not a kit or made system, just one of those thing's I thought I would give a try one weekend. I had read about someone else doing it in a magazine once. Had the equipment I needed to do the ground work, at the time pipe was cheap and it was very easy to install. The average temp I get out of my pipe is 60 to 70 degrees F depending on the season. It would probably have been a little lower temp and more constant at 55 degrees if I had dug down further (I think it's a steady 55 deg F at something like 10 feet). My back yard is on a slight hill and when I dug it up I made a straight in cut. So it's about 3 1/2 feet deep at the shallowest end and close to 4 1/4 feet at the deep end near the house. I ended up with 8 loops of pipe when I was done.

Was the question about house size for me? If so I'm about 2,000 sq/ft now (put on a addition about 2 years ago). Plan on living here for the rest of my life, it's been in the family for close to 200 years now.