helpppp! i want geothermal and i need info! what dimension of house is a good candidate or what does it require for geothermal?
More Pages:
- Solar Energy: Solar Or Geothermal Energy To Replace 100 Percent Of All Electricity In House? (7/21/2011)
- Solar Energy: How Does Geothermal Energy Power A House And Heat One.? (11/13/2011)
- Solar Energy: Can I Use A Residential Well For Geothermal Energy? (7/24/2011)
- Solar Energy: Who Was The Founder Of Geothermal Energy? (7/15/2011)
- Solar Energy: What Are The Advantages Of Geothermal Energy? (6/7/2011)
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
i you want to spend many thousand dollar on geothermal tech you should invest it in a brand new construction. cost is too prohibitive to retrofit old house on this technology.
right now it is expensive for a standing house. hang on it will get cheaper. many large businesses have used it for years
My parents got geothermal, they got a great deal. The company does commercial and wanted to get into the residential market and way under bid. They estimated 14k to get a 6 ton system with 2 wells 480 feet deep with the thick (1.5 inch?) tubing and looks very commercial. It is also tied into their hot water.
They have a 1400 sf house on half acre of land. They put the wells in the back yard but it was a bad idea, they should have done them in front near the curb. the drill rig has to point up hill because the drill on the back only swings out and in, not right and left. so to get the hole plumb they have to aim the truck up hill. They drive forwards and backwards a bunch of times getting it lined up right. The thing is as big as a fire engine and leaves huge ruts in your yard. They also dig a huge pit 10x10x10 or so for the slurry to go into. To support the drill rig there is a trailer that they park then don’t move. They parked it in the driveway which blocked the only access to the back yard which made delivering supplies back there a pia.
Any way when they were all done they basically needed a new back yard (and good portion of front yard), they got estimate of 2k to fix it from a landscaper but they ended up doing it themselves for less. They also needed to get their driveway repaired, replace a couple sections of fence, and upgrade their electric to 200 amps.
But after they got all the mess cleaned up they have been very happy even know their unit is way over sized (for some reason they caculated the basement into the square footage which makes it a 2800 sf instead of 1400sf). The system easily keeps the house at 74 all summer long and 72 all winter long. It is a dual stage top of the line waterfurnace envision series model 072 and has only ever run on ‘low’ except for the time when they lost power for a day and it went on high for a while when the power came back on. On low their duct system is at capacity, on high its like being in a wind tunnel. On the coldest month of the year they spent 40 dollars more in electric then they did the prior year when they had oil heat that ran 2-3 hundred a month. Of course when they went to electric heat the electric company gave them a deal in the winter, everything over 600kwh per month is half price (7 cents per kw instead of 14) which helps a whole lot.
to answer your question, The wells need to be 40 feet or so away from the house and i think 20 feet apart and you need enough room to park the fire engine sized drill rig and support trailer.
When i asked for a quote it was 28k, i ended up with a high eff natural gas instead.