Geothermal vs Oil / Propane

[ELTON'S]

I do have to say I'm from eastern ohio and the weather here may not be as cold but i have a lot of various systems from geo to oil boilers and so on...to me geo has not been all its cracked out to be with the rising cost of electricity, i have several climate master tranquility two stage systems with closed vertical loops installed by two different reputable loops engineers/drillers/installers. and yes in theory @55 degrees they are very efficient but im seeing loops running temps in the twenties, wat we've been finding is that the loops are being taxed and drawing the water temps down due to the units running constantly. up here we are running 1 vertical well per ton avg 150-200 ft depth
im seriously debating on sticking with it as for the initial cost and now payback not so great

[can2man]

I do have to say I'm from eastern ohio and the weather here may not be as cold but i have a lot of various systems from geo to oil boilers and so on...to me geo has not been all its cracked out to be with the rising cost of electricity, i have several climate master tranquility two stage systems with closed vertical loops installed by two different reputable loops engineers/drillers/installers. and yes in theory @55 degrees they are very efficient but im seeing loops running temps in the twenties, wat we've been finding is that the loops are being taxed and drawing the water temps down due to the units running constantly. up here we are running 1 vertical well per ton avg 150-200 ft depth
im seriously debating on sticking with it as for the initial cost and now payback not so great

I live in Canada and we rarley see loops in the twenties here. Either your loops are too small, not flushed properly, or your units aren't staging up correctly.

[heaterman]

Cturman, thanks for the great calculator. Pellet stove co used to have a nice calc like that but they took it down, probably when pellets got expensive...

Yours is better anyhow...

Ditto! Saved that to my desktop, sweet!

[palmeri]

I agree Geo is still the way to go, fuel prices are far too volatile to bank on. If you need a good resource for the wood fuel/outdoor boiler side of the dicussion try a site called Hearth.com, they have a great blog there under "the boiler room" heading. Not to take away from this great site and the think tank that resides here.

[ELTON'S]

Loops are 4 150 ft deep for a 4 ton running methanol solution flushed with 2hp flush cart for 2-3 hrs, also i've used two different pump stations, both pressurized non pressurized which I prefer. Also always using climate master
Stat which has smart staging

[m159267]

20 degree loop temps indicate short looping or other issues. I currently have a 5 ton W.F. horizontal closed loop. EWT at winter's end is 39* - 40*. Live in central Missouri where the past 2 winters have been well below normal - lots of single digit and sub-zero days.

[can2man]

Loops are 4 150 ft deep for a 4 ton running methanol solution flushed with 2hp flush cart for 2-3 hrs, also i've used two different pump stations, both pressurized non pressurized which I prefer. Also always using climate master
Stat which has smart staging

I have had two jobs using CM stats that seemed to run in first stage all the time - never staged up and froze the loops ( both lake loops). New loops were put in on both jobs (same size loops) and changed the stats and we have never been back. Check to see that the stats are staging up. If it isn't that then it has to be loop - if you are using non pressurized (my fave also) then that should eliminate air,