On 9/15/2020 5:13 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
Â*Â*Â* I was watching the Dirty Jobs show with Mike Rowe the other day. He
was helping well drillers sink wells for a heat pump system for
something like an old folks home.
Â* It occurred to me that I haven't heard of any for plain houses.Â* Too
expensive?
....

We put in ground loop geothermal system in the house in TN to replace
the original air-exchange heat pump. Not a well, but 7-8 ft trench with
heat transfer loop tubing at bottom and about halfway.

NG not available and didn't want the big tank. With a thermal switch to
ensure the aux electric heat didn't come on unless outside temp 20 F,
it had great performance and payback compared to the older heat pump
about 4 years.

That was retrofit so excavation costs were a fair amount more than would
have been if had done when doing the excavations for basement and septic
when the house was built.

I'm sold on concept...

Ours was Water Furnace brand/manufacturer. We were there 7-8 years
after doing it and now been back to farm 20 years. Last I knew, it was
still going strong although that's about 3 years now since we stopped in
and met the folks after the folks after the folks we sold to.

We didn't do it because the layout inside the house wasn't amenable, but
one can get much cheaper hot water during cooling season from the exit
side waste heat as an additional payback mechanism.

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