Energy and Thermal data for Geothermal on a Budget - WEL0178

Geothermal on a Budget : Canaan, NH USA

Having become very frustrated with magazine articles where McMansion's were used to demonstrate the economies (''Our New Home is 100% Geothermal and the geothermal system only cost $ 350,000'') and vendor quotes (''your geothermal system will cost $ 47,000...$ 93,000), I decided to build a geothermal home ''on a budget''. Where the local HVAC company wanted $ 27,000 for the 5 Ton heat pump, installed, I took factory training, purchased the same pump from the factory for $4,700 and installed it myself.

Likewise, where radiant heating was quoted at between $30,000 and $ 45,000, we got a very detailed design and the complete installation kit from the great folks at www.nrt.com and installed it with a bit of help from the plumber. The result is a 6 zone radiant system operated by a Climate Master 5 ton (turns out to be much more than we needed, typical HVAC over-sizing...see graphs) water to water Geothermal Heat pump operating off our domestic water well. First year ran just over $ 1,200 for both heat and hot water. We expect to do better next year, since we're fixing all the sloppy air infiltration our awful builder didn't do properly.

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