Does anyone on here have a geothermal heat and air unit?
I am getting ready to build a house and was looking into installing a geothermal heat and air unit.
wondering what the advantages and disadvantages are.
thanks
Does anyone on here have a geothermal heat and air unit?
I am getting ready to build a house and was looking into installing a geothermal heat and air unit.
wondering what the advantages and disadvantages are.
thanks
I'd do it in about .00003 seconds if I was building a new house.
If you are ashamed to stand by your colors, you had better seek another flag.
On the day I die I know where I'm gonna go, me and Jesus got that part worked out. I'll wait at the gate till his face I see, and stand in a long line of sinners like me.
No I do not, but I so wish I did
I haven't dealt with them in the last 10 years, but, we installed several in the mid '90's.
The units that we installed were WaterFurnace brand. Incredible units.
The up front cost of geo units is the largest downfall. Whether you use wells in open or closed loop installations or a horizontal burried loop, there is still a higher initial cost up front. The energy consumption of the units is so much less than conventional air source units, that the geo's will pay the difference in cost back in the long run.
Geo-thermal units are a good investment, "in my opinion," but, some will argue of their payback in the long run if you run the numbers and figure in interest on borrowed money, etc...
WaterFurnace used to be the top of the line in geo's, I'm not sure if they still are.
See ya, HatfieldHog
You can look at this link: WaterFurnace - Smarter from the Ground Up™
Put one in when I built 5 years ago and im happy with it. Everybody asks me how I like it....its just like a gas furnace and central air...warm or cold air comes out if the vents. Its no different except I dont have an a/c unit sitting outside my house. It definitely cost more to put it in, I still need gas back up when the temp drops below 5 degrees, but I know it costs less to heat or cool. My neighbor (who was also the builder) has natural gas furnace and I think his gas bill is double my electric bill during the winter months. I would do it again if I built again.
We own a backhoe, so we could do some of the install ourselves. obviously if we go with the well type we will have to hire someone to drill, etc.
also gas is not even available in our area, so if we dont use geo, we will have to use a heat pump.
In 1998, a friend of mine put in a 3 ton WaterFurnace unit, I think the AT34. He worked for the power company and installed a power meter on the unit itself. This was northern Arkansas. He figured the bill at the end of 1 year, and it cost him app. $1.10 per day to heat and cool his house that year.
Hard to beat that!
See ya, HatfieldHog
and i realize the up front costs is more, but right now there is a 30% tax credit on the total installation costs. which is making me really want to go with the geo unit.
Jim, we had good ground to install these geo units, so we dug the "loop" lines ourselves with a backhoe with a 24" bucket. We dug the lines app 6 feet deep and ran the pipe on each side of the ditch, out and back, the ends of the pipes coming to a central large hole called a "Header Pit."
If you've got the type ground to be able to dig like this, and can do the digging yourself, you are in good shape with a geo unit and a horizontal loop.
See ya, HatfieldHog
P.S. Our loop line ditches were app. 240 feet long to accommodate the 500 ft. rolls of pipe. You can PM me and I'll give you my cell # if you ever want to talk about what I know about the install of these systems.
I would save the money then. Repairs con be very costly, maintenance is high. I own a heating and air co. and I wont hardly sell one anymore just for that reason. Got tired of telling people they had a well problem, system limed or some other problem that would accure just as the unit would be out of warranty. Not to say they all are that way but over the life of the unit if you add the operating and maintenance cost of the unit and the well, it about comes out the same if not more costly than a conventional air to air. Just my 2 cents. Good luck with whatever decision you make.Originally Posted by jim4596
thanks for the replies everyone, keep them coming.
A lot depends on your age and how long you plan on living there. We just built our last house 2 1/2 yrs ago and decided against it. We are going to sell in about 8 yrs and wouldn't be able to recoup the costs ( our quote was around 30k for unit and 5 wells ). You can buy a very, very efficient heat pump for a lot, lot less. Just my 2
You may be better off looking into solar. There are several types of systems and all of them will save you money. I have a solar heater on my house... air is sucked from inside my home up through a tube into a box on my roof, it goes through a system of channels where it's heated, then it's piped back down into my home. As long as it's sunny, my furnace doesn't kick on from about 10 am till about 7 pm during the winter and it's usually so warm I have to kick on the attic fan for a while. Speaking of attic fan's, they are a must. I only run my A/C unit when it's above 80 degrees outside during the daytime. That's about 2 and 1/2 months per year total. My summer utilities with electric and gas combined are usually about $150 from July-Sept. My Winter utilities run about $100 per month from Jan-Mar. The rest of the year I am at about $75 per month total. I have a roughly 2000 sq ft home and I used to have higher bills when I had my 1 bedroom apartment! Take a serious look at solar, you won't be sorry. ...especially with all of the tax incentives available right now. By the way, my solar system was about $5k back in 1983 and the only maintenance ever performed was to replace a small 1/2 hp fan that went out in 1990.
I am 34. and this will be my last house. i saved for 10 years to be able to buy the property. its on the lake. so unless i got sick or something this will be the house we live in until i pass away.
Yea a buddy of my dads sells them and my brother is currently building a house and he said the same thing and that's all he sells is geo thermal.
It's especially nice if you're on a lake and can put the tubing manifold (for a lack of a better word) on the bottom of the lake.
Had a Water furnace for 15 years now and still love it.
Ranger R70 Mercury 115
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