Question:
Geothermal is the best thing I ever did. Keep the house at 73 degrees all winter, preheats the hot water and runs a hot water baseboard. This is an all electric house for under 200 bucks a month.
Response:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> > When I suggested geothermal to my local HVAC guy he just said NO! > Is that the eenie-meenie-miney-moe HVAC company? I hear that they’re > working on > a sidewalk crack avoidance system now. > Just a local businessman who has lived here all his life and his father > before him. > I am glad I have an HVAC man who gives honest advice. Much better than > some clown who will try to sell whatever he thinks he can talk the customer > into. > Wayne
Getting advice about technical stuff from contractors can be tough. They have a tendency to stick with what they (think they) know, and run down anything they’re not up on. Stick framers who deride SIPs without ever having used them make a good example (my daddy framed with wood, I frame with wood, and lord willin’, my chil’en will frame with wood :-)). Perhaps your hvac guy gave you more than one word of comment on the subject of geothermal, you didn’t say. But the advice I’d give to anyone shopping for contractors is that when they encounter the one word advice types, or those who size hvac systems over the phone based on square footage etc., is to keep dialing. ‘Cause there’s a big difference between "honest" advice, and good advice. Wayne www.ctaz.com/~wmbjk
Response:
> When I suggested geothermal to my local HVAC guy he just said NO! > Is that the eenie-meenie-miney-moe HVAC company? I hear that they’re working on > a sidewalk crack avoidance system now.
Just a local businessman who has lived here all his life and his father before him. I am glad I have an HVAC man who gives honest advice. Much better than some clown who will try to sell whatever he thinks he can talk the customer into. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> Wayne
Response:
But unless the water be kept flowing, it probably will reach the ambient temperature pretty soon, especially when the heat pump is running. Then we will lose the benefit of large volume of air. By the way, we also have a NG-fired furnace, which would be cut in when the outside temp. is close to freezing. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text ->A thought: >an air source heat pump has a coil that operates in NJ at temps of say 10F >to 90F >at 10F there is not a lot of heat to pump into the house. >at 90F, it must be difficult to pump additional heat from the house into it. >if coil was put in a water tank, through which the incoming house water >flowed, would that not temper the temps for more efficient winter and summer >operation? >– >Steve Spence >Subscribe to the Renewable Energy Newsletter: >http://www.webconx.com/subscribe.htm >Renewable Energy Pages – http://www.webconx.com >Palm Pilot Pages – http://www.webconx.com/palm >X10 Home Automation – http://www.webconx.com/x10 >(212) 894-3704 x3154 – voicemail/fax >We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, >we borrow it from our children. >– > I live in Atlanta, GA. We have an air heat pump which is our primary > heating and cooling source. Is it possible to convert it to a > geothermal one? If possible, how much would the cost be? What kind of > payback am I looking at. Does someone have some ballpark figures, if > the conversion is possible? > Thanks.
Response:
> When I suggested geothermal to my local HVAC guy he just said NO!
Is that the eenie-meenie-miney-moe HVAC company? I hear that they’re working on a sidewalk crack avoidance system now. Wayne
Response:
A thought: an air source heat pump has a coil that operates in NJ at temps of say 10F to 90F at 10F there is not a lot of heat to pump into the house. at 90F, it must be difficult to pump additional heat from the house into it. if coil was put in a water tank, through which the incoming house water flowed, would that not temper the temps for more efficient winter and summer operation? — Steve Spence Subscribe to the Renewable Energy Newsletter: http://www.webconx.com/subscribe.htm Renewable Energy Pages – http://www.webconx.com Palm Pilot Pages – http://www.webconx.com/palm X10 Home Automation – http://www.webconx.com/x10 (212) 894-3704 x3154 – voicemail/fax We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. —
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> I live in Atlanta, GA. We have an air heat pump which is our primary > heating and cooling source. Is it possible to convert it to a > geothermal one? If possible, how much would the cost be? What kind of > payback am I looking at. Does someone have some ballpark figures, if > the conversion is possible? > Thanks.
Response:
> I live in Atlanta, GA. We have an air heat pump which is our primary > heating and cooling source. Is it possible to convert it to a > geothermal one? If possible, how much would the cost be? What kind of > payback am I looking at. Does someone have some ballpark figures, if > the conversion is possible?
You can consider replacing your heat pump with a geothermal unit. MAYBE the air handler can be incorporated into the new system but I understand that the conpressor and the freon/water heat exchanger are packaged with a matching coil. Your "inside" coil may be the wrong size, your blower motor wrong, etc. Effectively you are starting over except for the duct work. Ballpark? About $10,000. Because of limited competition and low production runs EVERYTHING is more expensive for geothermal than conventional heat pump. If you are about to be a pioneer in your area you might consider keeping you old system operational in case something goes wrong. In a temporate climate like Atlanta, the payoff may be FOREVER. You might want to post to alt.hvac where the air conditioning pros hang out. They would be biased again geothermal because the installation of the ground loop requires them to bring in outside contractors but a few on that group have installed systems. When I suggested geothermal to my local HVAC guy he just said NO! (I live in the Northern Neck of Virginia, near but not on the Potomac River.) – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> Thanks.
Response:
I live in Atlanta, GA. We have an air heat pump which is our primary heating and cooling source. Is it possible to convert it to a geothermal one? If possible, how much would the cost be? What kind of payback am I looking at. Does someone have some ballpark figures, if the conversion is possible? Thanks.
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