If heating only, and nat gas service is available, I doubt that geothermal can be justified. Is summertime humidity an issue for your location? AC planned?

Post back.

IMO

I will definitely have A/C even the cooling season here is about 1/2 as long as heating season.

In the northeast it is currently cheaper to heat a house with natural gas than with geothermal. Cooling with geothermal would be somewhat cheaper, but with your size house and climate I doubt you will ever see a return on investment on the extra cost.

You didnâÂÂt mention what you electrical rate is per kWh.

You did mention some pretty magic words, âÂÂI will need a wellâÂÂ.

Since youâÂÂll be drilling a well anyways, that opens the possibility of exploring an open loop geothermal heat pump system. Driller just has to make sure the well drilled can pump enough water for both domestic water supply AND geothermal. The well should be deep enough that if the water table drops due to drought or neighbors on the same aquifer that youâÂÂre deep enough to not run dry. The other issue is responsible discharge of âÂÂleaving loop waterâÂÂ. The best way would be back into the same aquifer at about 80 to 100 feet horizontally apart. The only âÂÂmodificationâ to the water is a change in water temperature of just a few degrees up or down depending on whether youâÂÂre heating or air-conditioning. ThatâÂÂs it - no other changes to water quality - so it can go back into the same aquifer!

Open loop does require more maintenance than closed loop. Water quality would have to be tested for suitability but this sounds like it might be a relatively shallow well that would keep pumping cost low. Open loop also represents the possibility for the highest theoretical geothermal heat pump efficiencies (COP) possible.

I would suggest separating all the HVAC, geothermal and well drilling from the general contract if you feel youâÂÂre up to the task. Hire properly accredited companies. I would also suggest that if you do go the geothermal route that you add to the contract a âÂÂCancellation DateâÂÂ, particularly with the drilling and ground loops. The last thing you want to hear after signing and waiting for a driller to appear is that, âÂÂThis is my busy season, IâÂÂll get to you as soon as I canâÂÂ!

You could also consider natural gas for the geothermal backup, particularly if youâÂÂd be using it for other applications as well. It would however add additional installation costs, such as, gas line and venting but should be discussed and explored.

IMO

SR

Here is a link that might be useful: International Ground Source Heat Pump Association at Oklahoma State University

When we built our house, we wanted to explore Geothermal. The customer builder was able to illustrate to us that really good building materials, proper insulation and good windows would be cheaper in the long run with a conventional system.

The payback for geothermal would be 20 years, plus additional years if anything went wrong. As much as we wanted to do it, we decided on an excellent insulation package. Our house was twice the size of yours. The payback gets worse the smaller the structure.

I did run a few of the payback geothermal calculators and I'm sad to say that as much as I would like to put in a geothermal system, the payback for the size of house that I need just isn't there.

Now if I could convince my 2 Labradors that they both need their own room, maybe... but currently even with planning to eventually finish most of the basement I just can't make the numbers work.