4wanderingeyes
5 year old buck +
What state do you live in? i am building in Northern Wisconsin.
Geothermal heating
- Thread starter 4wanderingeyes
- Start date
What state do you live in? i am building in Northern Wisconsin.
hesseu
5 year old buck +
I live in Missouri. I knew heating with propane would be way to costly, and I really didn't want to spend a lot of my free time cutting wood for an outdoor wood furnace...Hence, why Geotherm was a perfect fit. My neighbors have the outdoor wood furnace to heat their house, and he told me that he wish he didn't have it because of the time he spends cutting wood.
Rit
5 year old buck +
Very diverse comments about Geo. I will say that it all starts with the installation. Those that have it and hate it probably didn’t get a great installation or perhaps a great product line. Those that love it probably had the job done right.
Let me preface this by saying I used to burn wood and I also had a fuel oil furnace. I strongly disliked both options.
Before installing our Geo in 2013 (Water Furnace) we did a complete house makeover. We had blown in insulation put in all the walls, R-60 in the attic, and closed cell foam 2” thick in the crawl space along with all new doors and windows.
We have a 3000 sq ft house and I heat in the coldest Ohio months for about $130 a month. That cost is slightly elevated because I also run a mini-split in the winter months for a 400 sq ft 4 seasons room with a concrete floor. The cooling portion is almost a none issue about $15-$20 a month to have the house like an ice box. I also have a 2nd water heater that the Geo uses to keep water temps around 90 degrees and that fills my other water heater saving me a little bit of money.
We had the heating ducts replaced, 4 vertical wells drilled and the GeoThermal installed for just shy of $27k minus the 30% tax rebate. I was getting a new system anyway so once that was subtracted from the cost it didn’t take me long to get back into the green from what we were spending. I figured about 2 years it took us to break even.
I do realize that we could have went with a normal system and made the house more energy efficient and still had some great savings but no natural gas where we live and propane or fuel oil are just not as appealing.
I had one small issue in 5 years and it was a power issue during a storm where the Geo locked itself out because it wasn’t getting clean power. Easily remedied with a reset on the controller. With 5 years parts and labor left on my warranty I would do it again. The well has a 50 year warranty which will be far beyond my need for it.
If you do decide to install a Geo do some research on the local installers, then do some more. Then after that do some more. Ask for 10 references and to visit a current and past installation.
Let me preface this by saying I used to burn wood and I also had a fuel oil furnace. I strongly disliked both options.
Before installing our Geo in 2013 (Water Furnace) we did a complete house makeover. We had blown in insulation put in all the walls, R-60 in the attic, and closed cell foam 2” thick in the crawl space along with all new doors and windows.
We have a 3000 sq ft house and I heat in the coldest Ohio months for about $130 a month. That cost is slightly elevated because I also run a mini-split in the winter months for a 400 sq ft 4 seasons room with a concrete floor. The cooling portion is almost a none issue about $15-$20 a month to have the house like an ice box. I also have a 2nd water heater that the Geo uses to keep water temps around 90 degrees and that fills my other water heater saving me a little bit of money.
We had the heating ducts replaced, 4 vertical wells drilled and the GeoThermal installed for just shy of $27k minus the 30% tax rebate. I was getting a new system anyway so once that was subtracted from the cost it didn’t take me long to get back into the green from what we were spending. I figured about 2 years it took us to break even.
I do realize that we could have went with a normal system and made the house more energy efficient and still had some great savings but no natural gas where we live and propane or fuel oil are just not as appealing.
I had one small issue in 5 years and it was a power issue during a storm where the Geo locked itself out because it wasn’t getting clean power. Easily remedied with a reset on the controller. With 5 years parts and labor left on my warranty I would do it again. The well has a 50 year warranty which will be far beyond my need for it.
If you do decide to install a Geo do some research on the local installers, then do some more. Then after that do some more. Ask for 10 references and to visit a current and past installation.
S.T.Fanatic
5 year old buck +
I'd just go with more/better insulation. I run about $100/Month to heat or cool a little over 3000 sq ft. Natural Gas forced air (wish I had in floor) furnace about 8 years old.
Jordan Selsor
5 year old buck +
2 yr old 4 ton, 3 vertical well Geo thermal system here
Ours was 23k minus 30% tax credit then our utility company offered an additional 2k rebate plus 500 rebate for smart thermostat. I to was looking at an outdoor wood burner system. But this made more since after crunching the numbers...
Our house is 2300+sqft and we are at $130 month on budget bill. We are all electric. I did spray foam insulation. My biggest weakness is a hole lot of windows and we do ALLOT of laundry with 4 young kids
Ours was 23k minus 30% tax credit then our utility company offered an additional 2k rebate plus 500 rebate for smart thermostat. I to was looking at an outdoor wood burner system. But this made more since after crunching the numbers...
Our house is 2300+sqft and we are at $130 month on budget bill. We are all electric. I did spray foam insulation. My biggest weakness is a hole lot of windows and we do ALLOT of laundry with 4 young kids
4wanderingeyes
5 year old buck +
Will the geothermal system heat your water enough for showers and such? Or do you need a separate unit to still heat your water?
Rit
5 year old buck +
You will still need a separate water heater. The Geo will only heat water to around 90 degrees. The savings comes from the water being 90 when drawn into your water heater instead of 55 degrees like the water from my well.
It works better in one mode (heating or cooling) but I don’t remember which.
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