That's great! Do you like your new systems so far? It should be quieter, have better humidity control, and reduce your bills. Best of luck to you!

Here is a link that might be useful: Geothermal Experts

So far.... Highs in the mid to high 70's lows around 60. Loving the weather but not much opportunity to check out this system. Maybe next week. Looking forward to all the benefits you listed. Thanks

How is the system faring now?

I just put in a geothermal system, a six ton Waterfurnace Envision with a desuperheater and with vertical ground loops, this past December 2009 and I am thrilled with it! I saved $4000, maybe more over what it had cost us to heat our house for the past two winters with oil.

The system was expensive, and I thought long and hard about getting it, but I am very glad I did. Our house has never stayed so warm and cosy, the system is much quieter than our old oil furnace had been and it's so nice to know that there is no flame burning downstairs, plus I will never have an oil truck leave me a bill again. Now, that's priceless!

I am looking at installing a system, I live in northeastern part of Florida. Our city water is very hard, I just had a 500 foot well drilled for my irrigation, but have not had the water test yet. I had a couple companies give me a quote on a system. One wanted to use the irrigation well for the water and drill a new well for the return water. This company made a comment that the system coils will get covered with minerals, but made it seem like it was not a big deal to have him come out and clean it. The second company wanted to use a closed loop system because of the mineral in the water and he made it seem that it is not that easy or cheap to clean. He said, if it was his house he might go for the pump and dump, because he knows how to work on the system, but he would recommend a closed loop for anyone else.

What is everyone thought or comments on Pump & Dump vs a closed loop with about 4 or 5 well points?

Marc

Closed loop will be more reliable, require less energy to pump, require less maintenance and a longer, more trouble free life cycle.

SR

SR is right of course. I have an open loop system and even though I'm only lifting the water 60 feet or so it costs almost as much to run the well pump as the Tranquility. If you have to lift it 500 feet it would be expensive.

I do circulate dilute hydrochloric acid through the coils once a year on the advice of my installer. It isn't hard to do and only takes half an hour or so, but eventually I'll probably end up paying somebody to do it for me.

I'd definitely go closed loop if at all feasible, which it just wasn't for me.

Good luck,

Mark

After struggling with the cost factors, I decided to use a closed loop because our water is hard also, lots of calcium, manganese and iron. I'm glad I did as I have heard a number of stories about people in my area who went with an open loop and have had mineral build up problems.

Closed loops are more expensive, so that is a real consideration, but I decided I'd rather have a loop system that lasted for 50 years than pay to have the coils cleaned yearly and still have to have them replaced every so often. Got to be expensive, plus they might fail at the worst possible times.

Like any system, there are geothermal energy pros and cons. The hardest thing to accept about a geothermal heat pump system is that the average cost of initial installation is higher, and a good bit so, than a traditional central system or even an air source heat pump. It’s this upfront cost that steers many buyers away.

IS A GEOTHERMAL SYSTEM WORTH THE INVESTMENT?

Geothermal heat pumps are the most efficient. A high-efficiency furnace or central system achieves around 90-98% efficiency on fuel or energy consumption. That’s pretty good, for sure. But geothermal? 300% or more efficiency! How does that work, you might wonder? Well, the number cited represents the amount of thermal energy being generated per use of unit of fuel, which in the case of a geothermal heat pump, means that they are generating more than they are using, whereas a furnace, even of the highest caliber, doesn’t quite use the fuel source to 100%.

A geothermal heat pump saves on heating and cooling costs. Your average home equipped with a geothermal heat pump will save around 10-15% per month on heating and cooling costs, and in many cases that percentage is much higher. That means over time your geothermal system begins to pay for itself!

Yeah, in about 300 years...