Just made the decision to go Geothermal

Our furnace of 40 years bit the dust last spring although the repair man didn't make it out to check until mid September (despite several calls between May and September). We decided to have a geothermal system put in rather than another furnace.

It's a big hunk of change(?) to start out, but since we heat with fuel oil, we should break even in about 5-6 years and be on the energy PLUS side after that. Son, who expects to get the house someday, liked the idea and suggested we do it now. I figured there would be no better time than the present.

So, in a month or so, I'll be stealing heat from the Earth, but saving the air for posterity.

Anyone here have advice or experience with geothermal heating?

 

Will do.

I had five geothermal contractors come out and give me bids. The first one really sounded best, but it was not all that easy to keep the comparisons given as apples to apples. One preferred a loop field. I had already decided I wanted some type of deep bore system. One preferred a deep well, "pump and dump" system. While I have plenty of room and perfect conditions for that type of system, further research convinced me that I didn't want that either.

So, with everyone pretty much on the same page as to what I wanted, the main difference came to price. Three of the contractors had open-ended costs for drilling, coating, and such. That meant if the price they quoted was less than the actual price I'd have to make up the difference.

I got the first contractor down $500. He had no open-ended costs. He bid a larger unit with no need for a back-up system and I liked his professionalism. Lead up time will run about 4 weeks. I sure hope the weather, the furnace or both hold until the work is done. (The furnace went off sometime today. I'll worry about it in the morning.)

Son-in-law said it would run about $30,000. Yep! All the "apple to apple" bids were close to that price. The one I chose -- somewhere in the low middle -- was $27,500. Fingers crossed, here I go!

 

The final cost will be $27,000 rather than the $27,500 I'd thought. Of that 30% is reimbursed by the Federal Government on my 2914 tax forms. There are a few state and local tax credits for going GEO as well as possible Electric Company funds for "energy star" appliance credits.

These help to get the price down from ridiculous to merely laughable. When I count in the cost of the fuel oil I won't be using, pay back should be in only 5-7 years. All in all, it's not so bad if the whole picture is considered.

 

Just made the first payment and signed the work contract. Also saw another site going Geothermal. It was a bit messier than I had imagined, but by next summer there should be no sign the Earth was disturbed in the front yard (I hope).

 

They will dig a 4x4 ft hole that is 8 feet deep for the manifold connection all the pipe runs. That will be the biggest of the messes. From there, they will run their drill down 30-40 feet at a slant and run another 145 ft or so horizontally under trees, buildings, field, etc. before coming back up that 30-40 ft. slant out in 5 directions from the manifold hole. Once back above ground, they thread the
pipe back through the drillings and eventually connect them back at the manifold before running the two pipes into the house. I don't expect those far out holes will be very big or very messy. We have 30 acres here. Quite enough to find drilling space.

When done, the underground runs will cover a circle (with 5 rays) that is over 400 feet from end to end. The manifold, too, will end up covered by 4+ feet of soil so eventually there will be no outward sign that we have geothermal heating until you check the basement itself.

 

Sometime Friday the furnace went out. We had the fireplace running full bore so I didn't try starting the furnace until late Saturday. Nope, I couldn't get it to fire up. It was down to 56 degrees in the house Sunday morning and the world was covered with our first blanket of snow.

Fortunately, in the light of day I was able to get the furnace going. So far, so good. It's stayed running.

Good news about the geothermal. The installer has to finish his current job and then do one more before he can get to us. Last night he called to say he'd discussed our problem with the next people and they've agreed to let him install our system before theirs. How wonderful!

The sooner I can get rid of our failing furnace the better I will like it on many different aspects. So, next week? Maybe the work will begin. I promise to take pics daily of the work. . . and the mess.

 

It's been a while since I posted about the geo-thermal heating system we have contracted for.

Good news! The horizontal drilling company guys arrived Thursday morning to start boring the five supply lines.

More good news! We sit on a property with plenty of room on all sides (30 acres total) to give them a choice on where to place the supplies.

Bad news! Despite my telling the gang there was a Limestone Quarry well to the west of our land, that seems to be the first choice for drilling. By noon everyone was gone, and the phone call I received late Thursday said the drillers couldn't get more than 4 feet down without hitting limestone. Go figure! Half a city block from a quarry [old and unused] and these professionals were surprised to hit limestone?

Uncertain news! I'm sitting here doubting that I will have my Christmas present (at that price, nothing else can be afforded here) in time for Christmas. I suspect they are gone until after Christmas or perhaps after the new year.

Good news! The weather predicted through the end of next week is a great for this type of work as anyone could expect at this time of year.

Bad news! I don't think they will be here to enjoy the 'moderate' temperatures and get the job done before 'normal' Wisconsin returns.

Good news! When we purchased this land, we decided where to put the house, dug an extra deep basement to compensate for what would have been shorter basement walls because of the sunken living room. With nine feet of concrete walls sitting on for feet of footings the basement digging went down 13 feet without hitting anything other than black dirt. Not even any rocks to mention were dug up here. Then we dug a sump pump hole another 4 feet down below the basement floor and only then started to hit a soft limestone-y sandy mixture that changed color from black dirt to rusty brown.

Bad news! So far the diggers haven't had the same type of luck. Hopefully, they will return and find another site for the system that matches our home site. Could it be that we built on the only spot of land without rock? Holy Glacial drift, Batman! I never thought of that possibility!

 

Now winter has struck the area in ernest and our tired old furnace is rumbling on. No sight of the drillers. No expectation until the weather warms.

 

Sheesh! I wrote a long reply this afternoon and it's gone! I wonder where it could have disappeared to?

 

Mea culpa, Nifty. There was no problem. I had posted my reply on another thread. I checked back there and found it.

Nope, no problem with the wonderfully run site. It's just this old fogy who can't figure out tech-y stuff and doesn't quite understand what she doesn't know.

 

On Saturday I was told that the driller planned to come out on Monday and start putting in the geothermal system. I didn't figure he'd be here. The temperatures were supposed to be about 15 degrees (F) and that is too cold for outside working with water. He wasn't!

We are supposed to have a warming trend and temperatures from Wednesday on should be sunny and above the 20 degree minimum they need to work. Fingers crossed, the system should be getting in soon.

We have been using a 100 gallon tank on the back of our truck to keep the furnace running until the new system is put in. Last weekend, DS got $175 worth of fuel oil. Somehow the tap either was not shut or someone opened it. By the time he got to our house, most of the fuel oil was gone. Phooey! This is NOT fun waiting, buying fuel oil bit by bit, and pumping it by hand into the basement when we expected to be running on Earth power by now.

 

Not quite that bad, @Nifty. We haven't been filling the tank, just putting $150 into each 'load' of fuel oil. Still, that was a lot of wasted fuel oil and necessitated another trip for more only two days later. We typically use 5 gallons of fuel oil a day in the coldest of weather.

We don't want a fuel tank full of oil once the new system is installed, so we're running as close to empty as we dare.