| Author | Content |
kooger
Oostburg, WI (Zone 5b)
March 19, 2007 4:50 PM Post #3298691
| Here's some links:
http://www.geoexchange.org/
http://www.est.org.uk/myhome/generating/types/groundsource/
http://www.nef.org.uk/gshp/gshp.htm |
spot8907
Ida, MI
March 19, 2007 6:31 PM Post #3299098
| Fantastic! Does anyone have one of these? I know I have seen some homes in the real estate ads around here that have either these or heat pumps. Anyboduy have any experience with either one? |
darius
So.App.Mtns.
United States (Zone 5b)
March 19, 2007 6:34 PM Post #3299114
| Say NO to heat pumps. We have a new one, installed last September. Supposedly the right size for the house but even with the electric furnace on the heat pump (for temps under 30ºF) the elec. bills have been $200-$250 for 1 person in 1250 square feet of space.
I suppose I will like it for the 2-4 weeks we need AC in the summer. |
spot8907
Ida, MI
March 19, 2007 6:38 PM Post #3299131
| Now is yours a heat pump or one of these geothermal types? Could there be a problem with your system have you had someone out to check it? Your right, if this is the kind of bill one can expect with something that is supposed to be energy efficient I'd have to pass. |
darius
So.App.Mtns.
United States (Zone 5b)
March 19, 2007 7:41 PM Post #3299372
| Mine is not geothermal. Sure wish we'd had the money to drill a geothermal "well" but that would also entail some re-plumbing. |
kooger
Oostburg, WI (Zone 5b)
March 20, 2007 2:03 AM Post #3300669
| DH has two 2nd cousins that have them. They love them! $10-$15 heat bills in the winter in IA. They are very enery efficient. Nothing like what darius is talking abt. We had one of them in our house on the farm. Our bills weren't bad because the power company had a big rebate on if you were total electric, which the house was. We'd like to sell our house this summer and build a new one, smaller, with a ground source heat pump. |
garden_mermaid
San Francisco Bay Ar, CA (Zone 9b)
March 20, 2007 1:43 PM Post #3301889
| Sounds like some ground source heat pumps are more effective than others. I wonder what makes the difference between the type that darius has, and the one that koogers cousins have?
I know the geothermal plant in Reno has a major problem with the mineral buildup in the pipes and needs to keep scrubbing the pipes clear. Could the mineral content of the local water make the ground source heat pumps less effective too? Maybe I'm still missing the concept. Haven't had a chance to read all the links yet. |
spot8907
Ida, MI
March 20, 2007 1:50 PM Post #3301916
| I think what Darius has is regular heat pump that varies in efficiency according to the temp outside. I never have quite understood the concept. The geothermal on the otherhand uses the temperature of the earth which is closer to human comfort zone and works from there, still don't understand the concept from that point. It makes sense that the geothermal units would be more efficient because they aren't affected by the extremes of temperature in the outside air which is what we are trying to avoid in the firstplace. I hope you enjoyed my highly technical evaluation. LOL |
darius
So.App.Mtns.
United States (Zone 5b)
March 20, 2007 1:54 PM Post #3301929
| Spot, you are correct.
By the same token, radiant floor heating (geothermal or not) is effective because the cooler temps at our feet feel much more comfortable than the same temps at our shoulders. |
kooger
Oostburg, WI (Zone 5b)
March 20, 2007 1:55 PM Post #3301934
| Yes, darius' is a 'regular' heat pump. right? The ground source ones only need electricity to pump the water up to the house. No heating is done with the electricity. The ground warms the water. |
kooger
Oostburg, WI (Zone 5b)
March 20, 2007 1:55 PM Post #3301937
| Posting together there, darius. :) |
garden_mermaid
San Francisco Bay Ar, CA (Zone 9b)
March 20, 2007 2:16 PM Post #3302017
| Great minds think alike! :) |
kooger
Oostburg, WI (Zone 5b)
March 20, 2007 2:36 PM Post #3302081
| ahhh... you forgot the rest of that line ... fools seldom differ! but since darius has a great mind, we'll go with that one. lol |
garden_mermaid
San Francisco Bay Ar, CA (Zone 9b)
March 20, 2007 2:41 PM Post #3302098
| yes, I'm a great fan of darius. She ain't no fool! |
Debsroots
Northwest, MO (Zone 5a)
March 20, 2007 3:06 PM Post #3302176
| We have geothermal heat in our home and had it put in when we built our home 4 years ago. Our electricty bill which includes our hot water heater and all the other normal appliances averages $100 per month. The highest bill we've had this winter was $127 and the lowest we've had during the spring months was $45. We really like geothermal. Although it was alot higher to install, in the long run it is paying off for us. Just down the road from us, a friend has a home approx the same size as ours but does not use geothermal and they have bills during the winter months around $400 a month.
Wish I could tell you more about it, but I don't know that much about it.
Deb |
garden_mermaid
San Francisco Bay Ar, CA (Zone 9b)
March 20, 2007 3:15 PM Post #3302195
| darius, is your heat electrical? I've got 1160 sq feet and even during the freezing 17 F weather my utility bill never passed $90 for 2+ people (it's usually between $40-$60). Even when I had six people crammed in here for a week over the holidays (yes, that was insane) and the showers and washer seemed to be running non-stop, the utility bill didn't top $90. Of course, my heat is a hydronic system off of the gas hot water heater. My stove and clothes dryer are also gas. I'm wondering if the electricity is what is driving your cost up? |
darius
So.App.Mtns.
United States (Zone 5b)
March 20, 2007 4:32 PM Post #3302443
| GM... we are all electric here, other than the woodstove I just installed. The elec. heat pump was installed last fall (along with all new ductwork) to replace the very inadequate elec. furnace. Part of the problem is that the core of the house is a 20 year old trailer and I'm sure the insulation is scant.
If my sis gets moved here this summer, we plan to add insulation in the space between the old trailer roof and the newer trussed roof. I doubt we can do anything with the exterior walls.
Our KwH rate was very low but then they had a 30% rate increase in Dec.. Our elec. bill runs 2X what the salesman estimated for the new system, and also I didn't opt for the most efficient system at the time. I do, however, need to have him back out to check everything while we are still under warranty. |
iagardenwolf
Ankeny, IA (Zone 5a)
March 20, 2007 6:58 PM Post #3302968
| Had our house not been finished when we came across it 4 years ago & put an offer on it, we would have seriously consider putting in geothermal. (The only thing not done was the railings on the stairs!) The bad thing now is that we'd have to rip up a lot of the garden in order to install the pipe. I suppose it would be a small price to pay in the long run. On the other hand, our house was energy star rated. |
darius
So.App.Mtns.
United States (Zone 5b)
March 20, 2007 7:36 PM Post #3303123
| Kooger, I finally had the time to read your links at the top of the thread. I didn't realize there is a difference (source) in pure geothermal and ground source heat.
Actually I am a dummy and should have known because I have long advocated earth tubes for summer cooling... not too different an idea. |
kooger
Oostburg, WI (Zone 5b)
March 20, 2007 11:19 PM Post #3303940
| You mean a different source as in ground loops versus the heat pump pulling heat from the outside air? |
darius
So.App.Mtns.
United States (Zone 5b)
March 21, 2007 10:13 AM Post #3304811
| I guess I didn't explain what I meant very well, but you are correct. I always assumed geothermal to be a drilled line down to a heat source, never occured to me that it could be a closed loop closer to the surface.
|
spot8907
Ida, MI
March 21, 2007 11:35 AM Post #3305168
| Geothermal operates on the unchanging earht temperatur around 65 degrees I think. It will heat your house in the winter AND cool your house in the summer requiring only modest additional adjustment to keep your house at the desired temp. |
twiggybuds
Moss Point, MS (Zone 8b)
March 21, 2007 11:28 PM Post #3307347
| I have a distant cousin that built his house with the closed loop geothermal back in the early 80's. He was the first in this county if not the state and has been very happy with it. He pretty much engineered it himself. I failed to do it when I built and have regretted it. I'm total electric with a regular heat pump which I replaced two years ago. Even when the kids were home, my electric bills were half or less what the neighbors pay with standard electric furnaces and AC.
A regular heat pump is great for AC. Period. The heat they produce comes out cooler than your body temp so you feel an uncomfortable cool draft when it runs. It will heat the house but runs almost constantly when it drops below 45 degrees. I just hate mine in the winter and shut it off in favor of the more expensive furnace which is just about dead at 21. I really need to come up with something before next winter. I know ya'll are making fun of me, saying "What winter?" in my zone 8b. |
mccommons
Hershey, PA (Zone 6b)
April 14, 2012 10:09 PM Post #9082911
| Check out http://www.geothermal-pa.com |
audsrz
Traverse City, MI (Zone 5a)
December 5, 2012 4:54 AM Post #9350236
| My parents have a 3500 sq.' home. They added a geo thermal system when the technology was still new. Local building code forced them to keep the old boiler / radiator system in place as back up. There heating bill went from $850 a month in the winter to $4 a month. The $4 is from keeping the pilot light lit on the boiler. Their system is also attached to a solar water heater on the roof and they now also have ac in the summers because of the new system. When my current forced air system ages out of good efficiency, we will switch to a geo thermal system as well. I might add we live in zone 4.The gas co. actually called my parents home to make sure someone was still living there.lol |
AYankeeCat
Fairfield County, CT (Zone 6b)
January 2, 2013 8:13 AM Post #9373086
| That is amazing!
|
Debsroots
Northwest, MO (Zone 5a)
January 2, 2013 8:57 AM Post #9373127
| We have a geo thermal system that we installed 9 years ago. When it was first installed our total monthly bill including electrical averaged $90 per month. Now 9 years later, it averages $184 per month...which around here is extremely low. When we originally installed it, the additional cost for geo thermal was close to $10,000 additional...but we are so happy we installed it.
Now...we wonder if we should install solar panels...and it might just get our bill down to almost nothing. |
