What's everyone use as supplemental or main heat?

[grsthegreat]

We had a Water Furnace horizonal gound loop GEO Thermal installed when I built the house in 1995. Our heating and air conditioning bills for the whole year run around $360; less than a dollar a day.:thumbsup: The screens for all the windows are in the attic in their orginal boxes...we never open the windows. If the tempature is 20 degrees outside and the sun is shining my air condition will kick on because of the heat gain from all of my south facing windows. I heat and cool 3286 sq ft. year round.
I keep a dual burner propane heater and a couple of 30lb tanks around in case of a power failure. So far have never needed to use it.

what was the cost of the geothermal loop system.

A job i was just on the people paid nearly $25,000 for their system. ill never pay 25,000 in propane if i live to be 100. Alos, i was called in to add a 50 gal electric water heater to the system cause it wasnt getting hot enough on its own

just wondering. id love to get some sort of geo or solar options going, but the install costs are just insane.

 

[Tig]

just wondering. id love to get some sort of geo or solar options going, but the install costs are just insane.

I've used open loop geo. Water comes from a well and goes to a dry well. Quite efficient.

 

[JerryK]

Have a smaller fairly well built home in Northern Lower Michigan with propane high efficiency furnace... about $800 a year in propane for heat and cooking. Have a 30Kbtu ventless and a couple electric oil heaters for backup. Go thru about 5 to 7 face cord of wood out in the barn playing/working on the toys though..... big barn... lots of toys...

 

[coobie]

Avalon astoria wood pellet stove.Go threw about 3-3 1/2 tons per year,its our main heat.coobie

 

[mehig]

what was the cost of the geothermal loop system.

A job i was just on the people paid nearly $25,000 for their system. ill never pay 25,000 in propane if i live to be 100. Alos, i was called in to add a 50 gal electric water heater to the system cause it wasnt getting hot enough on its own

just wondering. id love to get some sort of geo or solar options going, but the install costs are just insane.

The price on a 2 ton water funace and 1200' foot loop installed in 2007 was $12,000. In 1996 I had one installed in another house I built, a 3.5 ton unit with vertical wells drilled and 1500' loop for $10,000. This present system makes an unbelieveable amount of hot water when the air conditioner compressor runs. Does any one else notice this?

 

[whistlepig]

The price on a 2 ton water funace and 1200' foot loop installed in 2007 was $12,000. In 1996 I had one installed in another house I built, a 3.5 ton unit with vertical wells drilled and 1500' loop for $10,000. This present system makes an unbelieveable amount of hot water when the air conditioner compressor runs. Does any one else notice this?

Sounds like you have the desuperheator option on your water furnace. We have this option on our water furnace. Saves even more on the cost of electric.

 

[DKCDKC]

The price on a 2 ton water funace and 1200' foot loop installed in 2007 was $12,000. In 1996 I had one installed in another house I built, a 3.5 ton unit with vertical wells drilled and 1500' loop for $10,000. This present system makes an unbelieveable amount of hot water when the air conditioner compressor runs. Does any one else notice this?

I had a 2.5 ton Water Furnace with 1500 + loop put in in 2001. And it does provide all our hot water during AC months. It also gathers extra heat sometimes from our three zone system to heat water in the winter as well. We've been pleased with it. I figure it paid for itself several years ago.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

The price on a 2 ton water funace and 1200' foot loop installed in 2007 was $12,000. In 1996 I had one installed in another house I built, a 3.5 ton unit with vertical wells drilled and 1500' loop for $10,000. This present system makes an unbelieveable amount of hot water when the air conditioner compressor runs. Does any one else notice this?

Those are great prices. When I was looking, I got bids $30 for a 3ton unit. Another bid was $46K for two 3 ton units. The installation of the slinkys was bid at $16K of the 46K. The prices in MD are unbelievably high, they think we are all millionaires. So, I installed myself, a 2ton and a 3ton for around $14K, that was including redoing my upstairs ductwork, that wasn't included in my bid prices. Course, I did have to buy the backhoe :laughing: not included in that price. I have the desuperheater coil in both units, have not connected them yet. I want to do that before next AC season, because that is free hot water. I think I post this earlier, I expect my electric to increase because of the geo units, as they run more often. I installed comfortaire Geomax2 units. Very nice units, same as climatemaster tranquility, including the same control boards, only priced less. they come with CuNi coils and desuperheater coil standard.

 

[Tig]

If I were looking for auxiliary heat today I would look hard at the inverter heat pumps. They run down to -20C. Some pretty good COP numbers for your average fall and winter days.

 

[bcjmmac]

Waterfurnace geo-thermal 4 ton unit, 5 vertical loops - installed when we built in 2010. Back up is 2 electric baseboards in basement + air-tight wood burning fireplace. Really enjoy the comfort of the system. Last few days we have had blizzard conditions (-25 C, 60-80 KM/40-55 MPH winds, 16" or so snow) and you wouldn't even notice it except for the wind noise. Cost to run the whole house is ~$3000 Cdn/year (heat, lights, hot water, water pump, etc). Have a 20KW backup generator (propane) but haven't had to use it much.

 

[MWRR]

That's one efficient home you must have. It's difficult for me to get an exact measurement of the electrical useage account of a hot tub and stock tank heaters. I estimate my yearly heating/AC cost at $520 and my house is 1500 sq ft. This spring I'm going to rewire my furnace to a sub panel with an in line meter

Yes, I'm very pleased with the efficiency of our home. I stick built the house myself and i made sure all the nooks, cracks and crannies were sealed/insulated. My GEO is on a separate meter which makes it easy to keep track of my costs; and I too have the hot water auxilary heater.
I don't remember the exact cost back in 1994 but it seems like after all the rebates the system ended up costing about $7800. I know they have went up considerably since 1994.

 

[soulasphil]

After 20 years of heating a 19th century granite house with electric heaters in each room, I finally had a boiler-room built and a pellet furnace installed in 2011 for heating and hot water. Divided my electric bills by 5, which is quite important with present prices. The cost of pellets for the year is about what I paid in electricity for 3 weeks winter heating. Not to speak of the added comfort. Pellets are stored in a silo and taken to the furnace by a screw when needed. The whole system is run by a couple of computers that have never malfunctionned so far.

 

[brokenknee]

99% wood, burned in a wood furnace. Electric baseboard backup. I did turn the circuit breakers back on over Christmas as we were gone for a few days.

 

[Scooby074]

After 20 years of heating a 19th century granite house with electric heaters in each room, I finally had a boiler-room built and a pellet furnace installed in 2011 for heating and hot water. Divided my electric bills by 5, which is quite important with present prices. The cost of pellets for the year is about what I paid in electricity for 3 weeks winter heating. Not to speak of the added comfort. Pellets are stored in a silo and taken to the furnace by a screw when needed. The whole system is run by a couple of computers that have never malfunctionned so far.

I wish we had the bulk pellet delivery that's common in europe! Great system.

 

[Deere Dude]

I have a 1500 Sq Ft house on main level with full finished and insulated basement. 5 1/2" walls with fiberglass and 1" blue board over that for the main level. The block basement is with 3 1/2" studs inside with fiberglass and drywall. I have an airtight 24" fireplace upstairs on one end.

We use about 4.5 to 5 cords of mostly oak, hickory with about 25% soft wood. I turn the LP forced air on last week for about 10 minutes to make sure it works. We use about 150-200 gallons of LP for cooking and heating water.

I have about 33 cords stored in a couple buildings cut and split and dry.

I plan on moving to Tennessee next year; what a kick in the teeth. :confused3::confused3:

 

[Soggy Bottom Outdoors]

Electric wall heater, wood backup, kerosene backup to the backup, Lots of NG and propane here, no coal or fuel oil in my area.