Re: Geothermal Power

Hi. I have a geothermal system in my house and I live in the northeast. Your savings comes in your air conditioning bill. I was told that there is a 20 percent savings in your heating over gas. If you are going to put in one of these systems in the northeast or where it gets colder than 20 degrees alot, put in a high efficiency back up system. Geos don't do as well when it gets cold. I do not have this and if it goes to the back up, it is pure electricity which is really expensive. It does not go to backup that much because of my insulation but we had a good winter and my electric bill really went up.

My house is heavy insulated with icynene so I feel the combination of the heavy insulation and geothermal provides me with the energy savings that I get. I run my system at 76 degrees in the summer and am quite comfortable. Again, I think this is due to the insulation.

You can also get a system that is tied to your water heater and it dumps the heat of the system into the water heater during the summer or your pool. This will allow you to have a lower bill in the summer and a place for the geo to dump your heat.

I am new construction so if you are thinking of retrofitting it may be too costly vs the payback. Worth checking out. It is expensive to drill the loop for the geo unless you have a pond. Then you can have an open loop which is cheaper. Another plus, there are no dripping condensors outside!!! No hum of the condensors is wonderful. Hope this helped. anna hackman, www.green-talk.com