My Geothermal Installation in Photos

[tucker]

Reviving this thread to post an update.

Like most of you, we just had some of our coldest weather in years, here in Southern VA.

I took a look at our energy bills from last year, and found our coldest day / highest usage - Jan 25, 2013.
Then I compared that to our usage for last Tuesday, when the weather was colder than it was last year.

Not only is the house warmer feeling, but we're using about 1/3 of he energy, compared to the old air to air systems.

[DeadEye_Dan]

That's awesome. I'm thinking about putting one in here as well, I'd forgotten about this thread

[assateague]

Probably saving even more, if you factor in the insanely increased price of electricity.

[tucker]

Probably saving even more, if you factor in the insanely increased price of electricity.

If you look at the cost of electricity over the last 50 years as compared to other products, you will see that it has risen relatively very little. We did just get an increase, but I believe it was the first one in 7 years. My wife works the company, but we don't get an employee discount.

[Goldfish]

Probably saving even more, if you factor in the insanely increased price of electricity.

If you look at the cost of electricity over the last 50 years as compared to other products, you will see that it has risen relatively very little. We did just get an increase, but I believe it was the first one in 7 years. My wife works the company, but we don't get an employee discount.

It shouldn't rise like the cost of other things because they should constantly be getting better at producing and spreading that electricity for it to be cheaper

[tucker]

That does happen with fuel and efficiency, but equipment, labor, and maintenance costs still rise.
I don't mind the increase, as long as they keep giving her salary increases and exceptional benefits.

[jehler]

That's awesome. I'm thinking about putting one in here as well, I'd forgotten about this thread

not any cheaper than natural gas right now, especially if you need a closed loop system, you could be looking at 15-20k in just wells. It's a gimmick unless you have an artisan well or something else

[Woody]

That's awesome. I'm thinking about putting one in here as well, I'd forgotten about this thread

not any cheaper than natural gas right now, especially if you need a closed loop system, you could be looking at 15-20k in just wells. It's a gimmick unless you have an artisan well or something else

My dad had geothermal put in when he built his house, he said it has paid for it self.

[tucker]

not any cheaper than natural gas right now, especially if you need a closed loop system, you could be looking at 15-20k in just wells. It's a gimmick unless you have an artisan well or something else

I agree that natural gas would be as cheap, but we don't have natural gas anywhere near this place.
The three acre pond in the front yard made it a no-brainer.
Also, vertical wells are necessary if you don't have a lot big enough to dig trenches, which are messy, but considerably cheaper than wells.

[DeadEye_Dan]

I might just put in a big assed outdoor boiler too

[Eric Haynes]

I might just put in a big assed outdoor boiler too

Well worth it. Mine heats both my garage and house on 6 cord a year. Costs me about 650 a year to heat.

[tucker]

Well worth it. Mine heats both my garage and house on 6 cord a year. Costs me about 650 a year to heat.

Is that based on the cost of buying wood or are you calculating the cost o cutting it yourself?
What other costs are involved - hauling, splitting, storing, labor, electricity for pumps and fans on boiler?

Not trying to pick you apart. I burned wood for several years after I first got married. We cut and split our own, and it was a shload of work.
My time is valuable to others, and therefor valuable to me.
For example, I will make about $250 this weekend. It's rainy, and I couldn't cut or haul wood anyway. But I will repair a couple of PCs that I brought home from the shop, and I'll do that while watching football and doing other things around the house.

Our house is 2865 sq ft. and we heat all of it. We have well water, and everything else is electric, so our total utilities cost us about $200-250/month in winter.
I can easily make that in a day of regular work or on a weekend or two, so using that time to mess with wood makes no sense economically for me. I like the push buttons.

[tucker]

[BrewGUN]

Well worth it. Mine heats both my garage and house on 6 cord a year. Costs me about 650 a year to heat.

Is that based on the cost of buying wood or are you calculating the cost o cutting it yourself?
What other costs are involved - hauling, splitting, storing, labor, electricity for pumps and fans on boiler?

Not trying to pick you apart. I burned wood for several years after I first got married. We cut and split our own, and it was a shload of work.
My time is valuable to others, and therefor valuable to me.
For example, I will make about $250 this weekend. It's rainy, and I couldn't cut or haul wood anyway. But I will repair a couple of PCs that I brought home from the shop, and I'll do that while watching football and doing other things around the house.

Our house is 2865 sq ft. and we heat all of it. We have well water, and everything else is electric, so our total utilities cost us about $200-250/month in winter.
I can easily make that in a day of regular work or on a weekend or two, so using that time to mess with wood makes no sense economically for me. I like the push buttons.

Burning wood and running an outdoor boiler is two different things. Most outdoor boilers dont require a lot of the wood to be split, and if you buy by the pulp cord and just cut it into manageable chunks, your saving quite of bit of time from cutting all the way down and splitting. My uncle uses his excavator to do a lot of his "cutting" lol

[tucker]

So how much is a cord of pulp wood, chainsaw, and fuel to run the saw and excavator?
How many hours per week are spent making fuel and tending to the boiler?

[Eric Haynes]

Well worth it. Mine heats both my garage and house on 6 cord a year. Costs me about 650 a year to heat.

Is that based on the cost of buying wood or are you calculating the cost o cutting it yourself?
What other costs are involved - hauling, splitting, storing, labor, electricity for pumps and fans on boiler?

Not trying to pick you apart. I burned wood for several years after I first got married. We cut and split our own, and it was a shload of work.
My time is valuable to others, and therefor valuable to me.
For example, I will make about $250 this weekend. It's rainy, and I couldn't cut or haul wood anyway. But I will repair a couple of PCs that I brought home from the shop, and I'll do that while watching football and doing other things around the house.

Our house is 2865 sq ft. and we heat all of it. We have well water, and everything else is electric, so our total utilities cost us about $200-250/month in winter.
I can easily make that in a day of regular work or on a weekend or two, so using that time to mess with wood makes no sense economically for me. I like the push buttons.

Burning wood and running an outdoor boiler is two different things. Most outdoor boilers dont require a lot of the wood to be split, and if you buy by the pulp cord and just cut it into manageable chunks, your saving quite of bit of time from cutting all the way down and splitting. My uncle uses his excavator to do a lot of his "cutting" lol

Brew gets it.

I cut my own wood and only on days when i am doing absolutely nothing else. None of it gets split but yes, I do have to stack it. I don't use the "my time is worth money so i need to calculate that to" factor since i only do it when I'm not working or have anything else to do.

[3legged_lab]

:lol::lol:
"Cost of storage" made me laugh.

[DeadEye_Dan]

There is unquestionably a cost involved with time handling wood.

If I was starting from scratch and had to put $25-$30k into a conventional HVAC system, I'd probably pop for the extra $20 and do the Geothermal route. Whereas now I'd be looking at probably $50k since I'd need the wells and in ground loops. I can throw a boiler onto the current system that's only 1year old for probably $10-12k

[DeadEye_Dan]

[3geese4me]

A $1000 utility bill? Holy hell Dan

[3legged_lab]

If I was starting from scratch and had to put $25-$30k into a conventional HVAC system,

What do you mean when you say "conventional", and how damn big is your house?

[tucker]

:lol::lol::lol:
"Cost of storage" made me laugh.

Sheds, tarps, whatever you use to keep it dry.
It's really not meant to be as silly as you've made it out to be.

[tucker]

If I was starting from scratch and had to put $25-$30k into a conventional HVAC system,

We spent $4,000 on spray foaming the attic and $28,500 on the geothermal, including the new water heaters, boring the holes for the lines, and the pond loops. Everything. The installer also went through the house and sealed all of our ductwork, also included.

I got the spray foam guy to bill the HVAC guy, then asked him to incorporate that cost into his total installation cost. That way I get 30% back on all of it on the tax credit.

We did have existing line sets and ductwork, so there was some savings there.

Total cost was $32,500 - $9,750 tax credit = $22,750.

We used a 4 ton dual speed unit downstairs and a 2.5 ton dual speed upstairs.
The dual speed units run at a lower tonnage until demand dictates that they run at full capacity.

Our home is 2,865 sq ft. Three bedrooms and 3.5 baths.

[rebelp74]

Ever heard of turning the light off

[Eric Haynes]

Ever heard of turning the light off

75% of that bill is the gas bill. Turning lights of ain't going to help.

[3legged_lab]

:lol::lol::lol:
"Cost of storage" made me laugh.

Sheds, tarps, whatever you use to keep it dry.
It's really not meant to be as silly as you've made it out to be.

I know you're just factoring in every cost to make the comparison fair but that one was funny.

Maybe he stores it in the garage, maybe his house already had a woodshed when he bought it. Maybe hes like assa and found a tarp on the side of the road. To me its splitting hairs, but I see where you're going with it.

[DeadEye_Dan]

If I was starting from scratch and had to put $25-$30k into a conventional HVAC system,

We spent $4,000 on spray foaming the attic and $28,500 on the geothermal, including the new water heaters, boring the holes for the lines, and the pond loops. Everything. The installer also went through the house and sealed all of our ductwork, also included.

I got the spray foam guy to bill the HVAC guy, then asked him to incorporate that cost into his total installation cost. That way I get 30% back on all of it on the tax credit.

We did have existing line sets and ductwork, so there was some savings there.

Total cost was $32,500 - $9,750 tax credit = $22,750.

We used a 4 ton dual speed unit downstairs and a 2.5 ton dual speed upstairs.
The dual speed units run at a lower tonnage until demand dictates that they run at full capacity.

Our home is 2,865 sq ft. Three bedrooms and 3.5 baths.

No doubt that I could stand more/better insulation in this house.

And in fairness, that $1000 utility bill is $300 of November & Decembers usage that was paid earlier this week, but hasn't been credited to the account yet, but that just means the last 34 days only cost $700 ha ha.

[3geese4me]

The utility bill for my house was 295 last month. So it is just shocking to see such a high price.

[rebelp74]

My gas and electric is through 2 different companies, last month was a total of $87.54

[assateague]

What is the life expectancy of the handling units for the geothermal system?