Geothermal and NuWool insulation

[chrisinMI]

Just checking to see if there is anyone out there who has a geothermal heating and cooling system and also NuWool insulation. We just built a home and installed both. We love it. Haven't gone through winter yet, but our cooling costs for the summer was very low. We have a 3500 sq ft home and couldn't believe the difference in bills compared to our prior 1000 sq. ft home. We did consider using ICF's vs. stick framing (for increased energy efficiency), but the builder could not build the entire 2 story home with ICFs. I didn't want to piece everything together. So this was as energy efficient as we could get. I would highly recommend both in new construction. Upfront costs are higher, but longterm, it will far outway the costs. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] <font color="yello[color:white"> </font color> <font color="red"> </font color> <font color="red"> </font color> <font color="yellow"> </font color> w] </font color>

[exeter_acres]

Sounds like a good setup.. Monroe county??!?!?
am curious about the geothermal in a place like Monroe? [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]
In my ignorance, I don't have a clue how it works...outside of a place like Iceland where geothermal is so readily available..

We are in Carleton..not too far I am sure!

[jtcweb]

Carleton??? You have high speed internet in Carleton? I live in Ypsilanti and we've only been able to get it for a couple of years.

[chrisinMI]

I'm in Ash Twnship. We have a 300 ft. horizontal loop in the back of the house which is 10 ft in the ground. The loop draws in heat from the earth in the winter to heat the house and in the summer it puts the heat back into the ground, which cools the house. (This is a very simple explanation). It also heats the water. We have a 6 ton unit in the basement, which is the size of a std. forced air furnace.

[chrisinMI]

High speed internet? probably do?? but I do not have time to check it out and sit at the computer at home yet. I get into work early to review this site and TBN. Too much work to do--ceramic tiling, staining the handrails/ballisters on the staircase, window trim/baseboard, the list goes on.....as for TV, I just have 3 channels--2, 4, and 7. For my reception, it is a good ole hanger taped to my primed only walls. One day, satellite tv.

[s1120]

I have also been thinking of geothermal heat/cool. To bad there is no money in the budjet for it.[img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img] Can it be added on at a later date? Any bad things about it?

[chrisinMI]

It can be added at a later date without difficulty. Cons, I wish I purchased the model with hot water on demand. Water is hot 24 hours/day. Now for the system to produce hot water, it needs to be running. The cost of hot water on demand is a 2,000-3,000 higher, which definitely wasn't in my budget at the time. This option can also be added later, but another loop would need to be installed. also, I may have considered zoning my house, but again, another cost involved. I am still adjusting my ducts to get the proper flow of air. Other than that, I would never return to forced air system. Geothermal is very efficient, quiet,a nd with the Nu wool insulation, my costs are extremely low. Payback for my system will occur within 4 years. Make sure you research all the companies. There are a lot out there that state they do Geo. installations, but they are not registered to do so. I chose a company called Andy's Statewide. Go onto the Detroit Edison (DTE website) and look under Geothermal. There are also a lot of Geo. websites out there. I spent hours reading/researching before I made a decision. I met with 4 companies for 1-1.5 hours each to discuss this system.

[exeter_acres]

Yep with Charter cable.. no dsl though

[exeter_acres]

Sounds like we are neighbors... I'm on exeter (name gives it away, eh?)
Very interesting set up... I always thought you had to be ina geothermally active area.. but I guess it is the same principal as a cave, or building a house partially underground.. the earth basically remains a constant temperature.. So we can use it!
Great input, thanks
Curtis

[kevinro]

I have a very large geothermal installation. Actually, the official term is 'ground source heat pump'. The basis of operation is just like a standard heat pump. Rather than blowing air through a radiator coil to heat or cool, it sends fluid out through a network of pipes in the ground. It doesn't demonstrate the usual problem with heat pumps, which is they perform very poorly in extreme weather (really cold or really hot).

I have a rather large house, so I ended up with 6 units. 2 of them can heat most of the house. I also have a unit that does the domestic hot water, one that does the basement and garages, and 2 others that heat the swimming pool. My total energy cost is about 50% of what a friend is spending on his house of similar size. It looks like it will take about 6-7 years to pay off the difference in equipment.

My house is heated using radiant floor heating. It also has force air for cooling and whole house ventilation.

A couple of nice points are they require no regular maintanence, they have no emissions, and they are quiet outside. I really dislike the amount of noise that an air based heat pump generates. You can't hear a thing outside. Inside, they are about as loud as a large freezer or fridge running in a mechanical room.

I selected the Water Furnace brand of pump. They have been around a little longer that most of the other companies. Florida Heat Pump and HTI are two other companies that I know of that make them.


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Kevin