If you do, what is your opinion of it?

Currently I have gas, but am thinking of switching or adding geothermal.

-- R. (thor610@yahoo.com), February 15, 2001

Answers

We have geothermal heat and LOVE it! We are in central Ky, just north of Lexington. Our whole house is run by electricity as we feel electricity is very economical here.

With a family of 4 (2 adults, 2 kids) our electric bill runs about $45.00/month. With all this COLD weather we had the past 2 months, one of the coldest in Ky history our bill was $130.00. We also run central A/C during the summer, all off the same system.

When we lived in New Hampshire it was ALWAYS $100.00 every month of the year and that was without electric water heater.

We were told to get a reputable person to install. Ask your electric cooperative as they were instrumental on who we contracted with, they knew all the installers who were working locally. The man who installed it still comes by to check on us when he's in the area.

Good luck in your research.

-- E Nouvertne (bellyacresfarm@kyk.net), February 15, 2001.

I guess we do use a bit of geothermal heat at our house as there is one geothermal powerstation on the national grid in New Zealand. There are two sizeable towns with wide use of geothermal heat but limitations have had to be introduced as too many steam bores were reducing the geothermal field activity.

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), February 15, 2001.

R. Could you please explain what you mean by "geothermal heat"?

If you are referring to a "ground source" heat pump, I have such a system. I love it. It's three hundred and ninety five percent efficient. It costs but 18 cents to run it, and I only run it a couple of hours a day, then burn wood, if I'm going to be home. It also air cons, but in three years I've only had to run it for less than 20 hours total for this.

If you're referring to geothermal as getting heat from steam or boiling water underground, like they do in Lakeview, Oregon, among other places, I can only wish that I had access to it..

JOJ

-- jumpoffjoe (jumpoff@echoweeb.net), February 15, 2001.

By geothermal, I am referring to the type of furnace that takes water either from a surface source or a well and heats with electricity and then sends that heat through the house. Geothermal made not be the correct terminology, but that is what it is called around here.

One common furnace brand around her is Water Furnace made in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Perhaps it is called a heat pump. I am not sure.

-- R. (thor610@yahoo.com), February 15, 2001.

OK, R. I thought that must have been what you meant. Some call it geothermal, some call it "ground source". It is a type of heat pump, but it is way more efficient than a heat pump which takes heat out of the outside air (at least in climates which have temperatures that get down anywhere near freezing) because it takes heat out of either the ground, through a buried series of pipes, or from groundwater or stream.

Mine takes its heat from my well water, which was coming into the house at 55 degrees this morning. The well water never varies even as much as a degree, which means this is by far the most efficient source. However, with mine (which is a Spectra, the "cheapo" line made by Water Furnace). It requires approximately 4.5 gallons per minute of well water whenever it's running, so you need to consider whether or not it's efficient for your particular situation. If the well is very deep, or if your house is quite a bit higher than the well, (mine's not) your pumping costs could seriously affect your costs. Furthermore, don't use groundwater if you can't afford to drill a return well, as you don't want to deplete your aquifer.

Another way these units work is to run a "closed loop" down into the well, which allows the water to extract heat from the groundwater without actually consuming water. I don't know how the efficiency is affected by this; I suspect it would all depend upon the depth of water in the well, and the nature of the aquifer. If the water is continually being replenished the temperature will remain fairly constant. If the water just "sits there" in the well, it would gradually get colder and colder as the heat is taken out of it for your house.

One good thing about a closed loop in the well, is that you would have less pumping costs, since any water your pump lifts is balanced by the water that's going down the other side of the loop.

The air con side function of this type of heat pump is also extremely efficient, since the unit is taking the "cold" out of cool groundwater, rather than out of the hot outside air.

also, there's no noisy compressor and fan running outside, disturbing your family and neighbors.

If you get one, I'd recommend getting the higher grade of heat exchanger (copper-nickel, I think it's called), as it will last longer than the plain copper one, if you have corrosive water, or if you need to clean it with an acid wash periodically. I have not had any service needs at all, after three plus years. On the other hand, I only run it about two hours per day, on average, since I either heat with wood, if I'm going to be around the house, or just let the house cool off a bit without heat, if I'm going to work for the day.

Wood's REALLY where it's at for me, since I have a good wood source on my proporty, and never have to even kill a tree, since there are always two or three, or more, which die of natural causes every year.

Wood is a renewable resource, non fossil fuel, and is almost free if you cut it yourself.

JOJ

-- jumpoff joe (jumpoff@echoweb.net), February 15, 2001.

I've seen some good answers so far, but I want to say that there are pros and cons to this type of system. I work as a service tech for a Water Furnace dealer in southern Ind, and as far as reliability, it would be hard to beat. In a straight closed ground loop system, the loop temperatures will vary from the mid 50 in summer to below freezing in winter.Thus the need for antifreeze in the loop solution. A real nice method if you have a lake nearby is an open loop, if it is deep enough. A geothermal & heat pump are exactly the same as far as basic operation, but the efficiency comes from the loop having only a 25-30 degree swing, opposed to the outdoor fan on a heat pump having a potential 80-100 degree difference between seasons. The initial cost of installation is normally the deterrant for people who decide against the geo. Also it does make a mess out of your land for a while. Geo is the way to go for cost efficiency, but I would only consider it if it was to be my primary heat. For backup usage, go heat pump. In case you havent guessed, Im Tillers husband. If you have any technical questions, feel free to email me direct. gbrooksdownonthefarm@yahoo.com

-- Cindy (SE In) (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), February 18, 2001.

Yes ! We built an inground home. 3000 sq ft give or take a few. We have radiant floor heating, coupled with a 5-trench geothermal field and an electric fluid to fluid heat exchanger. It is wonderful. Almost all of the house has ceramic floor tile, except for two bedroom s with Pergo flooring (because it works with radiant heating). We have a super insulated home, and the utlity bills are very reasonable. We cook with propane, but everything else is electric. In the summer, we get hot water at no cost for normal usage (a by-product of the geo field). By the way, we love the in floor radiant heat. The house is very comforable, no dry air, no moving air, no dust! The nicest thing is that even the furniture gets warm. It was the best thing we did when we built this home. Rick

-- Rick Powell (rpowell@email.ccis.edu), February 21, 2001.