Geothermal Energy for residential homes - anyone have this??

[PrincessMommy]

We're about the start the project of replacing an underground oil tank with an above ground tank.  But, I've been wondering about alternative energy for this house.  We expect to be here at least 10yrs but it could be 15-20 depending on how things unfold after dh retires. 

I happened upon a series of articles about Geothermal energy in residential home over at Mother Earth News:

Part 1:

Geothermal Heat Pumps - an Alternative to Heating Oil

Part 2:

How We Installed our Alternative to heating...

The writer of the article has had their system for less than a year, so I'd love to get some information from someone who's had it for several years.  I've read a couple other articles, but none of them address my question.  They just talk about how efficient it is and how long-lasting it is.  

 I'm curious how "warm" it really feels.  One of the things I hate about heat-pumps is that they feel cold - even if the temp is up to 76 - 78* it feels cold.  

We currently have an air conditioning/heat pump unit that I use in the summer or in the winter when we run out of oil.  Our main source of heat is hot water baseboard heat with an oil furnace.   The furnace isn't that old (I think its less than 10yrs old)... but we just moved here last year.  It does heat up nicely, but our baseboards don't seem very efficient. I may have to look into replacing them over time.  I hear that is expensive.  For instance, it seems to have trouble getting out to the master bedroom (an addition).  It's regularly 6-8* colder than the main part of the house.  

We are also getting bids to upgrade our fireplace and stove to propane gas.  We'll also be adding another free-standing gas fireplace in our electric heated sunroom.  This may make the oil heating less important - esp. during the daytime.  

[Selkie]

We've had geothermal for about fifteen years and are happy with it. We live in the midwest and it gets very cold here in the winter, like thirty below zero at times. The geothermal keeps our house heated to about 65 degrees. If we want it warmer than that, we have lp heat that kicks in. Geothermal can be pricey to install, but we're in the construction business and did our own excavation work, which made it pretty reasonable.

[Guest]

I have not personally had it but a couple of very high end houses we built were geotherm. I cannot say from experience but it must work well if customers with such high expectations paid for it and never complained afterwards. 

I do know what you mean though about the relative warmth of different heating methods. We have oil heat, but also have a wood burning furnace that we use a greater percentage of the time. The oil heat is much nicer warm heat. The wood fired system is a lukewarm heat and is not as cozy. It is one thing I wish were better that I can’t really do much about. Burning oil all of the time is just tooooo expensive. So we reserve it for the coldest days or when the fire isn’t burning well enough. 

[barnwife]

Yes, they feel cold to most people because they have to move more air at a lower temperature compared to gas or oil furnaces.  A hot water system doesn't have to move any air directly so it's even more comfortable.  That should only apply when the unit is running,  which can be all of the time in the coldest weather. 

Your addition was poorly designed, or you have air in the baseboard, or you could benefit from more baseboards in that addition and/or separate zone for the addition.  Replacing baseboards on an oil boiler won't help, if you want better efficiency or comfort, insulate and seal the house better. 

Good idea to look for options other than oil, oil is the most expensive fuel in most areas, even more expensive than electric resistance heat in many winters. 

The installed cost of geothermal and the complexity are so high that it doesn't make sense over an air source heat pump in a lot of areas.  The pacific northwest coast has such mild temps that ground source isn't needed, some other areas don't have a long enough heating season.  But then again, they're popular in FL because of the long AC season.  The other factors are if you have the acreage that you don't mind tearing up, or if you have to do boreholes/vertical loops for way more $$$.  High groundwater can help.  If you can use open loop (high water table, spring) then it's much cheaper in the short term. 

[PrincessMommy]

Thanks everyone for your input.  Lots to think about.  

I think our master bedroom addition is poorly designed.  We did have the air taken out of the baseboards last winter...maybe it's an issue again.  We did add insulation in the master bedroom addiiton last year as well, so I was hoping the coldness would be less of an issue.  So that's a disappointment for sure.  What I've done this year is add a secondary heat source (electric fireplace).  Since I'm usually only in there at night, that works best... but boy!! the bathroom is COLD  first thing in the morning.  brrr.  

Edited December 7, 2018 by PrincessMommy