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cheap geothermal
bitlocker
Member Posts: 299 ✭✭
anyone seen the youtube on geothermal? seems ok to me. a no brainer.
Comments
It is really interesting technology! You better be sure you are gonna be in your house for the long haul. You will not recoup the money if you sell sooner rather than later.
I also think it depends on where you live. Its still snowing in Wis today dont know how well it works under the cold conditions.
they use anti freeze and distilled water
We have an open geothermal system. It draws the heat from the water table underground. Typically it runs around 55°. Then the heat is drawn from the water by a compressor. The outside temperature has minimal effect on the water temperature.
There are basically 2 types. Closed loop and open loop. Open loop dumps the water into a river, creek, etc. Closed loop uses an antifreeze solution and recycles the fluid continuously. A Closed loop system will have to dig up enough depth to place the piping in the ground, the lower the pipe, the more efficient the system is.
Joe
Judy and I have the same open loop system. Seems to work just fine here in Michigan where we can get some fairly low temps. Where we live there are no gas lines and propane would have been our only other alternative. With the geothermal we aren't at the mercy of the wild fluctuations in the price of propane.
In the summer the same system doubles as an air conditioner, using the 50° water to remove the heat. A liquid is orders of magnitude more efficient than air for absorbing and removing the heat from the system. Bob
When Dad and Mom built their retirement home back in the 80s they had one of those units installed and it's still working today. It's an open loop system and the water is dumped in the pond.
Smitty, one can only imagine the happy ducks that live in that pond!
Are they selling tickets to their little hot tub?
Bobjudy, can the system keep up when it gets 20 below?
That is a very infrequent occurrence here in mid-Michigan. Yes it does keep up when it is that cold but with an open loop, I would worry about the discharge freezing and plugging. Fortunately the few times we hit that low a temp it is only for a day or so and only for part of those days. With an open loop that in effect uses well water from 140' feet down the water temp is the same whether it is 0° or 90° outside, so the amount of heating or cooling is constant. Most geo furnaces also have an electric heat backup but ours very seldom kicks in to supplement the geo function. Of course it will run more often on extremely cold days but so will a regular furnace.
Now for some drawbacks,
While cheaper to run than propane, repairs can be more costly. If a gas furnace needs a blower motor it costs a few hundred bucks. If a geo needs a new compressor, it can cost almost as much as a whole gas furnace. We have a heavy duty well pump and no problems for the last 20 years, but don't forget it is doing double duty supplying the household needs and the geo furnace. Good repair folks are a lot less common than ones that repair gas furnaces. If you have a power outage it takes a lot bigger backup generator to handle the needs of the compressor and the well pump than it does just a blower motor on a gas furnace.
So, just like anything else they have both good and bad points. Cheaper to run but more expensive to repair. Don't need a CO2 detector or have to worry about getting gouged on propane prices but need a bigger generator for power outages. Our setup works for us but everyones situation is different and it might not work as well for others. Bob
The discharge water is not warm at all. The geothermal process has taken almost all of the heat out of the water.
Joe
I'll add a bit of variety.......
In 2004 we replaced our 20 year old cratered 3 ton Rheem heat pump.........with a 5 ton dual capacity Waterfurnace closed-loop system.
Being in the Cross-Timbers area of Texas.....it's hot.....real hot. Arguably the hottest part of Texas. And it ain't even a desert!!!!
They drilled five 250 foot deep(dry......no water down there)holes in my front yard........drew a big crowd of neighbors.
In our 2200 square foot house.....and 105 degrees outside.......the unit can pull down to 72 degrees inside AND......turn off.
Over the years the unit has operated very well.......but in the last few weeks I've had capacitor and contactor problems. I've ironed them out, but will warn others......only buy USA manufactured power run capacitors......and keep spares.
Another caution......keep blower vanes CLEAN and use MERV 11 filters.
Hope this helps.
How many years did it take to “break even” financially from the initial investment you made?
I have not seen the youtube. Hope this helps.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
We have an open loop system here in SW Arkansas. It dumps into a lake across the road from us. We replaced the unit in 2013 with a high SEER one, and I figure we broke even last year. The t-stat sits on 70 degrees year around. When it is 100 degrees outside, the unit draws about 16 amps, the same as if it was 10 degrees. Our 5000 watt water heater is the backup heat instead of strip heat, and no, we don't run out of hot water in the winter!
We had a run capacitor pass away on us last year. I replaced it and all is fine. To be fair at that point it was a little over 20 years old, so I didn't feel bad about that.
A few years ago our generator died so we bought a bigger one to handle the geothermal aspect of our power needs. Prior to that we just used our fireplace and the fan to heat the house when TSHTF. Now we just sit back and stay warm or cool no matter what the weather is doing.
I should have also said that our well has the capability to deliver 65 GPM. There are a lot of things to consider when you install a geothermal unit, but it has worked out just fine for us.
Many years ago I worked as a water well driller in the tidewater region of Virginia. Geothermal was the big thing at the time
Put in dozens of well for the systems. Typically we did two wells . One for input to the system and one for return to ground . Seemed to work well
I'll try to remember.......back.....18 years. So don't be too tough on me.
At the time, the best conventional heat pumps were about 16 to 18 SEER......while the Waterfurnace was rated at about 24 to 26 SEER.
The cost difference between the two systems was approximately 10 grand.......all that drilling, etc.
To complicate matters, I had shortly before switched from TU Electric to another electricity provider......as a few years before, Texas had deregulated the electrical market. I went from about 15 cents per kilowatt-hour to 7 cents.
So........I estimated the 10 grand payback was 7 to 8 years.
Advertised lifetime was 30 to 40 years......with piping underground/wells at 50 years.
A comforting thought.....is that all equipment is indoors. 😀
Hope this helps.