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Pennsylvania Poconos Geothermal Heating Systems (broken link)
Has anyone here installed a geothermal heat pump & have experiences or testimonials to share? How long was it before you realized a savings in your home heating & cooling costs?
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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These are using the term "geo-thermal", very loosely (formerly called 'ground source heat pumps', as Geothermal was reserved for thermal steam / natural hot springs)... but
They are efficient, and have good longevity in climates that are not efficient for air source heat pumps, but greatly overpriced. Payback will depend on needs, It is another item that you would want to only invest in a home you are sure you will stay for quite awhile.
I would install it myself (if site was 'rock-free', as mine is) and save $$ if I could get the equipment wholesale. I would probably first consider the 'in-floor' radiant heat, as you can use multiple sources for heat source (wood, fuel, bio-diesel, grease, natural gas, propane, solar, electricity) I have friends who run their grease powered 'genset' 4 hrs per day, and heat their floors with the radiator water. Their Electric meter runs backward and they get a check from utility every month, instead of a bill.
I have a Geothermal system in my house, I can't make any claims about savings, since I have nothing to compare it to since it came with the house, not a retrofit. What I can tell you is my electric bills were about 300 dollars a month for a 3,500 sq ft house last winter. I have a Air Source Heat pump for my upstairs and a Water Source Heat Pump (Geothermal) for the downstairs, I think the heat pump is 1/2 my electric bill and the geothermal 1/4 and 1/4 for the rest of the house.
When I switched from Heating to cooling at the beginning of the season, my 19 year old Florida Heat Pump stopped working, I just had the system replaced with a Premier Water Furance system with a desuperheater for $15,140. It will be interesting to see if the new more efficent system lowers my billed over last year.
I'm not sure if I have what you have..I have a forced air Water Furnace geothermal system and I live in a cold climate. My budget electric averages about $200. a month for 2600 sq ft house and part of our heated barn.
I have a geothermal open-loop system... and 3 wells, one for water in, one for water out, and one for potable water (I didn't design this, it came with the house).
I don't own this house (this one is in NH), as I am only here for a couple years. Remember this is a sample size of one. My personal opinion is, when I build another house, to never use a geothermal system until they are truly perfected. Natural gas would be my choice (of course it has to be available). Payback time for a GT is very long (in this case, infinite). This house is not that big (4600 ft^2), and it runs $450/month for electricity. Electricity here is expensive ($0.17/kw-hr). One of my other houses is almost 3 times the size of this one, and heated with oil, it costs about the same, per year.
Fortunately, I have a couple of woodstoves in this house, and that is now what I use for primary heat, using the GT as backup. The house is very solar-efficient; correctly oriented for the sun, lots of glass, insulated shades, etc, and I can get the house to 78 degrees during a sunny day when it is only 30 or so outside.
I understand the efficiencies of heat transfer via a heat pump vs. creating heat by burning a fuel or electric generation. I just don't see it here, in my case.
(The plumbing in the furnace room looks like the cooling piping in a nuclear power plant, a copper pipe thief's dream )
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Heating and cooling information
Here's a site that has good info on geothermal.
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