Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Geothermal heat pump

Please forgive me if I don't word this query properly. My wife and I are considering purchasing property and having a house built for us. We are wondering about heating and cooling options and have heard some about geothermal. My limited understanding is that instead of just using the outside air like with a normal heat pump, a geothermal unit has piping of some sort down into the earth and uses the more stable and moderate temperature to work more efficiently and effectively to maintain the house temperature. Sorry for the long and wordy sentence. Do I basically understand it correctly? I guess it costs more to install but hopefully pays off eventually. Kind of like solar panels in that regard.

Yes basically. What’s your age?

You understand perfectly.

It is much more efficient than air to air heatpumps.

Your base ground water I'd 50 degrees.

Only 20 degrees from your desired indoor Temps.

When it's cold out, your trying to pull heat from cold air.
Same issues when it's hot.

It is really expensive to install normally.
Unless you have a spring, you need to drill numerous wells and install pipe loops
in each one in a series.

Our middle school had a system installed during a remodel,
now they want to install them for the elementary and high school.

A co-worker installed a hydronic system almost 10 years ago.
$20k.
Those are groundwater heat pumps interfaced with a hot water heater system.
It allows use of existing radiators and doesn't need ductwork installed.
However, there is no way to get air conditioning then.

I wouldn't have went that route, but it was cheaper than installing ductwork, and
he has a two story plank house.

You likely have duct work.

The warm slow, don't turn the heat down.

Great stuff, but expensive.

Get a couple of local quotes... would be my advice.

Systems can vary quite a bit.

Without Govt subsidies, you will never save enough money to pay for it. Yes they work well, but most times the installation costs are very high, and by the time you get close you breaking even, you will be replacing the components.

Save the money and go with an air to air high efficiency heat pump, I installed a Carrier infinity system and it’s amazing, the system is rated at 19 SEER, but now they have one rated at 26 SEER,

I'd like to see the math that tells you how long you have to have it to get your ROI

Looked into this recently. Heat pumps only work down to a certain temp, then you need alternate source of heat. A geothermal heat pump can still work at much lower temps without alternate heat. Much more expensive on the front end though. May or may not be worth it depending on your other heating options. Are you planning for solar on the build?

In the River valley I would guess a standard heat pump would work for 90% of winter. You'll get a few cold stretches, but plenty of warm days throughout the winter. Add a good wood stove and you'd be fine.

A mechanical engineer that did design work for the County I worked for said 13 years was about right. Now this is a 6A/6B area. Locations mean a lot, as well as ground. Here, drilled "wells" are the norm since it's mostly rock. And rock presents it's own issues other than the drilling costs. Rocks absorbs the temp and holds it instead of dispersing it, so the "wells" have to be spaced accordingly.

If you have ground where you could trench 4 feet deep, you could bury several hundred feet of plastic line instead of a drill rig. Or if you have sizable pond you could sink line in it.

We have a Geothermal system with 3 zones that we had installed when we had our house built.

We live on 80 acres, with plenty of yard, so our loops run horizontal at about 5' depth, so there was some installation savings there. The house is right at 4200 square ft. and is all electric due to the geo system. Our average electric bill in the summer is about $165 per month. In the winter we have a wood stove in the great room and our electric drops to around $130 a month. Our house is ICF construction (Insulated Concrete Form) so some of that energy savings is due to that.

The system we had installed was $32K back in 2012 when we had the house built. At that time we received an $10K rebate on our taxes (actual check). A regular HVAC system would have cost around $11K, so we paid around $11K more for the Geo.

The systems are more expensive to operate as maintenance visits cost more as do air filters. Other than that ours has ben pretty trouble free.

We installed our geothermal in the fall of 2015. Wells were drilled. Cost was around $25K. With the rebates from .gov and incentives from electric company, covered more than half the cost, it has been trouble free, we have a service plan that cost a $100/year where a tech comes by. We heat/cool about 3400 sq/ft. Set at 68 degrees year round. Never change it. Electric bill stays sub $200 year round during the hottest days to coldest.

Would 100% do it again.

Thanks all for your input. I will look into this more. If we buy property it would likely be a few acres. We have our eye on possibly buying 2 or 3 lots that are 3 acres each. So I would think we could probably have the piping go horizontally a few feet deep. Sounds like rebates would be needed for any chance in this being financially viable.

I've always liked the idea of geothermal. Too bad there isn't more Fed money to explore/advance the concept. I like the idea of a horizontal loop...thought about buying a big spool (500ft) of the orange gas tubing. Here in the cold north (Minn), the tubing would have to be below the frost line...about ten foot deep.

I've alway thought geothermal would be super effective, for both summer and winter, when more effective temp. converters could be developed. Again, with more Fed money to advance the concept.

So you would do it if you could get someone like me and a thousand others to subsidize your install just so you can lay around half naked? You want grapes fed to you too?

Well...I feel better about gov't money to advance geothermal, than solar panel energy...but, yeah, point taken. Not a real fan of grapes, thank you.

That was a bit harsh troll.

Federal Grants and payments (earned or unearned) land with 80%+ of the population.

Drink milk?

Ya think $3 a gallon isn't subsidized?

What about ever so lovely ethanol in your Model T.

i.e. Fugg Off TROLL

I live in an area where geothermal is popular. The difference is our underground water is hot. The collage is geothermal, downtown sidewalks are heated with geothermal, to keep them ice free in the winter. Even then most home owners don't have geothermal, natural gas is way cheaper. Permitting is a cluster. All water pumped must be reinjected back to the underground aquifer. A good but expensive process.

I live in an area where geothermal is popular. The difference is our underground water is hot. The collage is geothermal, downtown sidewalks are heated with geothermal, to keep them ice free in the winter. Even then most home owners don't have geothermal, natural gas is way cheaper. Permitting is a cluster. All water pumped must be reinjected back to the underground aquifer. A good but expensive process.