Is Geothermal worth it?

[sugar3]

Anyone have experience with skyheating ?

Open loop on the surface often looks much better but in most cases as stated by others is not that way in a real world application. If you are brining in water you have to find out the water quality, ensure that the EPA will allow it in your area, filter the water, change water filters evey couple of months. I also only do closed loop system(my state damn near outlaws open loop because of all the regulations today.

[SkyHeating]

Anyone have experience with skyheating ?

As in referrals? Are you in the Portland area looking for a geothermal system? I have a small referral base built up of customers who have systems installed by us and replaced by us for geothermal and of course a wide ammount of testimonials for conventional systems. Look at my youtube(link below) for customer testimonials or send me an e-mail which is listed on our website.

-Travis

[Stoltem]

I have had a geothermal for the last 4 years. I have reduced my electric bill by 33% and that just replacing one of my two system. The time for the system to pay for itself is 8-10 years and that's before the 30% tax credit was offered, if i had been able to utulize the tax credit it would only take 6-8 years to pay off. I have a 2 stage, 4 ton Florida Heat Pump utilizing 4 wells. It heats and cools the house just fine and I live in Anne Arundel County, MD just south of Annapolis.

Hi,

Can you tell me who you used for your install? I live in Anne Arundel county as well and am looking for references.

Thanks!

[tcat007]

I see a lot of "northerners" here using Geo mainly for heating. How about Austin, TX? I have a 2500' house with 4 Ton A/C and Propane heat. House is only 6 years old, but cost of filling that propane tank is getting ridiculous. I know an ordinary heat pump would save money, and I'm guessing geothermal will save even more. My house backs up to a large pond (about 8' below foundation), property is not connected. Is water an issue when drilling vertical holes? Does it help or hinder efficiency? Could there be local restrictions? (I can find that out).

[GT1980]

Hi:
They are comparing the total transport plus rate, bottom lin, Ohio is 11-12 cents, then. Is your rate5 or the total KWH as a denominator to the total billing lower-bottom line?

b)
since 1980 80 96% of the time (est) regular 80% propane waas only annually equal to electricity for heating because of the maintenance to check and clean a gas burner, and failing components, the electric furnace never has a call for, -than "dusting-off" and same blower maintenance as any.

element failures have been rare among 30 year old electric furnaces, and if an installer looks at the element heating before ducting over the blower, a hot-spot can be improved on with a tab of sheet-metal addition where an OEM is not getting best air-over.

c) Thanks SKY ! And if we add that they are using GAS HW??? Get a quote from those making PRIORITY HW on Demand, then. Since WF mentioned above: They have options. One who patented Heat-Recovery in making HW WHILE COOLING ad the well- or loops are off-line at that time, is Hydro-Temp of AR [not to be confused with hydro-delta, hydro-heat]. A spin-off of Hot Water by "generator" or "DeSuperheater (pulling ~ 10,000 btuh or less) of HW heating is fine too, but to compare to the instant gas HW? Priority is all that will, most of the time, instant and On-Demand by temperature control.

d) I do not see above if you are well- source or loop to in-ground piping system Earth-Collector-Loop, etc.- I'll keep reading.

[GT1980]

Open loop on the surface often looks much better but in most cases as stated by others is not that way in


[[[ HIS "reality" ]]] a real world application...

Having over 300 OPEN loop and 8 removed since 1981... I think it is worth realizing:
1)
You can not destroy water, although the quality of the source is checked first, then the quantity if there is a PLACE or A second well to use for discharge. MANY second well systems are left to dumping in ponds and ditches for over 3 decades - doing beter than a 2-well design.

IT IS CONDITIONAL and appropriate in many real-worlds to consider. There are several ways to do it right , and not just a single way.

ie) some artisan residential wells have at 5 gpm a "FUEL-TANKER-A-DAY" pouring out to a front ditch for ----ever-known... to over 100 gpm , and some with iron that is 8PPM and only leaves a translucent orange, while others with 2PPM iron have wells plugging up every 3 years (FERRIC to FERROUS and Bacterial-Iron, that slimes things up)

Like any trade: Gotta KNOW the real world. and Sky knows what I am saying in a very wet state, it is not such a wet blanket. My county is only using to 4% of its rain fall (3 to 4x's "wetter" by hydrologic's of recirculation of ground water, than the country's averages).

Many many PERFECT open loops are about 1/3 of NEOH , still being installed, with better testing following THE 1980 standards of Jeff Persons in Col, GEOSOURCE1, WF-Dealer, formerly W/TETCO in the 1980's, a hydro-geologist who kept us out of trouble.

[GT1980]

Hi,

Can you tell me ...

Who did you find?
Water Furnace/GeoStar; Climatemaster/Carrier (Bryant; Econaire, Hydro-Temp, Enertec/Hydron/GeoComfort;
Hydro-Temp for HW and Heat Recovery and HVAC all in one...Pumps built inside and 4zoning board for 2 decades, built in;
Fla Ht P, and many others

see list at signature link to Eff E-Star OEM's all rated.

[loganms]

Did anyone ever comment back about geothermal in the more southern areas? I am in the San Antonio area and my engineer wife insists that geothermal is not worth it, especially if you have a super insulated house like we are building. She totally screwed us on the last house by not letting me build with geothermal resulting in a cold house in the Virginia winters and I want to get some "real" feedback on how geothermal works in the cooling areas as opposed to the heating areas up north.

[Bergy]

Past results can be an indicator of future performance...

The best way to know if Geo is "worth it" in San Antonio is to have local experienced Geo contractors bid the project.
They should be able to show cost comparisons between Geo, A/C and Air Source Heat Pumps. We are in Iowa and Geo is not the best fit for every job here.

Bergy

[junkhound]

"engineer wife"

Get the seasonal ground water and air temps and have the family engineer lay out the Mollier diagrams for whatever system you design and run that against local energy costs.

Here in PNW we do not need AC unless one has no trees, and then only about 5 days in the summer.
In San Antoine, doubt GSHP for heating would be any benefit at all. Here in PNW with 55F ground water in winter breakeven point for heating for air-air vs. GSHP is 42F, Probably similar where you are, maybe a little higher as ground water likely warmer.
Own house has both GSHP and air-air, outdoor tstat switches to GSHP when air temp below 42F - yu may want to consider that type option if the engieer designing the system.

ps: Recently installed single 2T minisplit in a small 1600 sq ft office, 1-1/2 years operation and owner reports very happy, was sufficient as building has 8" walls and super insulation. GSHP would have taken 200 years to break even, maybe never with oil/ng prices dropping.

[novajoshss]

Did anyone ever comment back about geothermal in the more southern areas? I am in the San Antonio area and my engineer wife insists that geothermal is not worth it, especially if you have a super insulated house like we are building. She totally screwed us on the last house by not letting me build with geothermal resulting in a cold house in the Virginia winters and I want to get some "real" feedback on how geothermal works in the cooling areas as opposed to the heating areas up north.

If you're building a super-insulated home, the gap in savings between one system or another will become significantly less pronounced. Assuming you have plans for the building, it would be worthwhile to calculate the design heating and cooling load (load calc) and compare that with bin data or the number of hours you expect to use heating and cooling. From there, you can calculate the total cost per year to keep your home comfortable. The reality is that geothermal systems are most efficient when you're placing the same number of BTU's back into the ground as you took out yearly.