Anybody have a geothermal heat-pump?

[smoogatz]

We're thinking about getting one for the crazy old, big-ass house we just bought. I know the initial cost is close to prohibitive (around $15k, maybe), but the savings in heating/cooling bills can be substantial (30-70%), plus it's a very green technology. Any thoughts? Anyone have any experience with these gadgets?

[Bjornsdotter]

1. We've been looking into it

...also.

We know a lot of people who have them....one in NC and the others in Sweden.

Everyone who has them, loves them. They are more popular overseas than here.
Depending on where you live and how cold it gets will depend if you also need another heat source.

Cheers

[smoogatz]

2. Heh. We live in WI--it gets colder than a well-digger's ass here

about three months of the year; winter lasts six months. But these critters are electric, right? Don't they just use electricity to make heat on very cold days?

[Warren Stupidity]

8. The pump and compressor use electricity but the heat

comes in from the well - and is around 65 degrees. The cost of operating the pump can be expensive.

[jljamison]

3. works great....but

we have one at our vacation home up in northern california. Our utility bills are very low. The home is a duplex of recent construction, circa 1995/1996.

The one caveat is - if/when we go up in the winter time, we hope we can find someone to turn the heat up a few days before we arrive. Otherwise it is friggin cold and it takes a _long_ time to heat the home from the mid/low 50s up to 65-66.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. Welcome to DU!

I take it you don't have a wood stove, then. That's our auxilarly heat. But it usually doesn't get cold here in Arkansas--just down in the 20s and 30s.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. Landlord has had one for about 20 years

her house is on the side of a mountain in the Arkansas Ozarks. She's told us that she has to do regular maintenance on some of the parts--I think she's had to replace the blower motor three times (the last time we were here), at a cost of a couple hundred bucks. But other than that-no problem.

A friend of ours built his house himself, incorporating "earth tubes" for geothermal heating/cooling. He finished it about 5 years ago, and so far reports no problems (my husband is the neighborhood mechanic and handy man, and we would have heard if there was any problem.)

Both these houses were built with geo thermal--I have no idea how easy it would be to retrofit.

[133724]

6. I installed a standard heat pump for our home in 2005.

Not a geothermal unit.

It reduced our heating bill from ~2K to about $650 per year. We used to use forced air oil(FAO). Cost of the unit was around $10K.

Make sure that you get a good warranty since maintenance will be higher than with a traditional FAO heating system.

Unless you live in California or the south you will most likely need an auxiliary heating unit. We live in Seattle, with mild winters. Just a few days below freezing. the aux heating unit is used to bring the household temp up to its programmed level in the morning and help to keep it there on VERY cold days. Standard heat pumps don't function well in temps below about 38 degrees F. A geothermal unit might change that.

As an aside, standard heat pumps go through a thaw cycle every once in a while to prevent ice buildup on the condenser coils. Because of this the will let off a steam plume that can fog your windows if it is place beneath them.

good luck...

[Nikia]

7. My mother's second husband was a manager at the electric company

Because of this, we had to have an electrical heat pump in our house that they built. When they moved, he even had the gas furnace ripped out and a heat pump installed. We were cold.