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Geothermal

chriscoli

chriscoli

Administrator
We're having geothermal installed at our house. Basically, for those that aren't familiar with it, here's the technical definition:

"A geothermal heat pump or ground source heat pump (GSHP) is a central heating and/or cooling system that transfers heat to or from the ground. It uses the earth as a heat source (in the winter) or a heat sink (in the summer)."

and works by: "GHP system relies on circulating water through pipes placed underground (either vertically or horizontally) to tap the natural heat retained by the earth."

It's not necessarily water that's circulated through the loop (I think many now are an ethanol-based fluid).

so, for the past three days, we've had a drilling rig sitting in our front yard installing a 600 ft deep well. It's been fascinating to watch.

Anyone else have this at their house?
 
H

HermsTheWord

Members
The University of the District of Columbia did this last year. At the time, I thought they were fracking for oil on their soccer field.
 
mchambers

mchambers

Former CCA member
So, is this all so you can have a pond that won't freeze over during the winter? If so, I like your priorities!
 
chriscoli

chriscoli

Administrator
So, basically, we got a 600 ft well installed. They drilled about 100 ft on Monday and lined the top portion with the big black pipe, welding each section together as the put it in. Then on Tuesday they switched to a bit that fit inside the liner, and drilled the rest of the well, finishing that part up this morning (Wednesday). The debris from the well (the clippings) were collected in a big expandable bag in the dump truck so very little of the sediment from the well ended up in our yard. The big roll of black hose is the "loop" that the fluid is going to run through. That was put down into the well and was grouted into place.


Next, they'll dig a trench from the well, to the house and trim off the well liner that's sticking up above ground, so when it's all over, you won't even see any part of the well. Then they'll run the loop into the house and they'll replace our existing HVAC with a heat exchanger and the pump that'll run the fluid through the loop.
 
chriscoli

chriscoli

Administrator
it depends on a lot of factors, but imagine not having anything but a pump running in the summer to bring you cold air (i.e. NOT having your utility bill go up in the summer). The ROI is pretty good for geothermal, which is why we're doing it before solar. Bruce's brother installed it at their house a few years back, and they're estimating that they'll have recouped their cost in ~10 years. I think 10- 20 is the norm.

We'll also be getting a discount on our homeowners insurance because according to them, "these things almost never break". Pretty much the only moving part is the pump.
 
chriscoli

chriscoli

Administrator
I just double checked the ROI with Bruce. If you consider the cost after rebates and tax credits, we're likely to see the return in about 10 years. Bruce's brother was also on heating oil and they'll have gotten their return in about 5 to 8 years.


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
 
YSS

YSS

Members
How much is it going to cost you, if you don't mind me asking? My heating and cooling cost per year would be around $1500 to $2000. So that means $15K to $20K cost?
 
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