I have geothermal in Kansas and it does save money. But the cost particularly if you are not thinking long term may not pay off. Our House was 1400 sq ft and is now 2500 sq ft. Was natural gas and is now electric geothermal and the heating/cooling is the same. The cost comes with the install. A good Geothermal unit will set you back about 50% more than a conventional furnace and AC unit. The expense comes with how you make ground contact. Cheapest is a good big pond that you can drop the ground loop into and it will settle into the bottom mud. Trenches can be cheap if you can do it yourself and you have the space. Mine is wells 6 each 200 ft deep. (Didn't have the space) Total cost three years ago $29,000 installed. Not really sure how DIY this would be. Control systems are fairly complicated. The system does maintain the house at a very constant level because the fan is variable speed and keeps the air moving while adding or removing heat to maintain the set temp. This also makes it very quiet for forced air. For some buyers geo may be a plus when buying.
David
--- In DoIt_Yourself@yahoogroups.com, "Bill Chmelik" <Chmelik@...> wrote:
>
> Heat pumps work pretty well in central Texas in the winter months as It is
> not exceptionally cols, but the efficiency drops in the summer months when
> the outside temps soar. The benefit of a geothermal heat pump is that it
> uses the earth as a heat sink, since the ground below the frost line is a
> pretty consistent temp of about 55 degrees F so in the winter is soaks up
> the heat from the ground and in the summer months it puts the excess heat
> from your home into the ground. There are a number of ways to tap this
> enormous heat sync, vertical well, horizontal trench, a multi trench field,
> and using the bottom of a pond, these are just a few. There are also DIY
> geothermal kits. You really need to do some research in your local region to
> gauge the specifics.
> ck
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: DoIt_Yourself@yahoogroups.com [mailto:DoIt_Yourself@yahoogroups.com]
> On Behalf Of Joy Rex
> Sent: Friday, June 01, 2012 11:41 AM
> To: DoIt_Yourself@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [DIY] geothermal A/C in Austin TX-area limestone ??
>
> I keep looking further into efficient ways to beat the heat... Now I ran
> across mention of geothermal again.
>
> I don't know how much longer I'll want to keep this house (how much I want
> to put into it), and money is always a problem; I do all the work that I
> can, myself. It's hard diggin' in this "dirt" around here... An inch of dirt
> on top of sometimes-boulder-size limestone.
>
> Anybody have experience / thoughts on geothermal A/C -- or other efficient
> systems?
>
>
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