Any experience with geothermal heat pumps?

[LiberalAndProud]

DH is broaching the possibility for our home. It looks good on paper. Any personal experiences to share?

[OKIsItJustMe]

1. Relatives have one

in their newly-built home. They love it!

[FreakinDJ]

2. Save LOTs of Money if your water table is high enough

[HereSince1628]

3. I researched it for a house in a rural setting in SE Wisconsin.

The initial expense is LARGE. Much larger than for conventional oil or propane furnace. I was looking at using Carrier products and it was going to run about 2 1/2 times the cost of a conventional furnace. None of the local heating/air condition companies had experience installing it.

TO figure out your costs, you're DH will need to make a choice about having a deep well or a buried coil for the exchange of heat with the ground. If you are in town or on a small country lot punching a well takes less space but depending on the geology it can be more expensive than a field of buried coils.

However, the operating costs are low... a 2200 sq ft home looked to have operating costs averaging about $75-80 a month (2005 dollars).

How did it work, you are wondering? It didn't, I lost job, lost income, never went forward.

[Ian David]

4. My neighbor across the street has one, and he loves it. n/t

[sharp_stick]

5. My brother has one

in his just built house and they love it.

The things to keep in mind are how much is it going to cost and will you get that back out of it. Make sure you have someone with experience in your area give you an estimate and make sure you know that you'll be in the house for quite some time because you can't take it with you.

It will probably help the re-sale value of the house but if you leave within a few years of the install you probably won't come close to getting your money back.

My brother has had his heating bills cut significantly but it will take quite some time to make up the install cost.

[cprise]

6. I researched them for my housemate

The best way to reference/search the technology is to use the acronym GSHP - Ground Source Heat Pump.

You might be better off with solar thermal if: A) you have a small yard, B) your cooling needs in the summer are low-to-none, C) you don't already have air ducts in your home.

Otherwise, GSHP looks very appealing and the pre-conception I had (about it only being appropriate for new house construction) isn't true, at least not in the post-1990s energy market. If you have oil heat the savings from switching to GSHP could be drastic, depending on the difficulty and expense of air duct installation (if any is needed) in your home.

You need to have your home energy-audited as a prerequisite for this kind of project, as the greatest return on investment is still insulation/weatherstripping and doing without that will greatly reduce the ability of solar thermal or GSHP to pay for itself.