Day 13 Geothermal - It's a dirty job but somebody's got to do it!

Directional boring machine drilling our Geothermal loop field

That beastly looking machine is a directional boring unit.  It is drilling six 220 ft tunnels ~30 feet deep underneath our property.  That "loop field" will be heating & cooling our house using a geothermal heat pump (hopefully without any problems for many years to come!).  We decided to install a Geothermal heat pump for our HVAC for it's low operating costs and energy efficiency.  The install cost is higher than a traditional furnace/AC unit, but it saves money over time.  There is also a 30% federal tax credit on all cost related to installing a geothermal unit.  Thank you Uncle Sam!

Lt. Harry approves!

 

For those of you not familar with Geothermal heating/cooling, it is a very simple concept.  It uses the relatively constant ground temperature (~50 deg F) to heat your home in the winter & cool it during the summer by circulating a coolant in underground pipes.  Our house will be around 4,000 sq ft.  Theoretically, our annual heating/cooling bill should be under $500.  We'll see what happens when that first electric bill comes!

 

We are using Albany Heating as our HVAC contractor.  Brian from Albany Heating has been installing geothermal ground source heat pumps for over 15 years.  He is every knowledgeable, easy to work with & open to new ideas.

 

 

 

 

The picture below shows the loop field exiting the ground.  A manifold connected these pipes and then they were reburried.

This is what the incoming & outgoing pipes will look like in the mechanical room.  Another benefit of geothermal is no equipement outside.  The entire unit is inside the mechanical room.