(pond loop assembly prior to submersion)

We are currently developing our Geothermal Section.  In the mean time here are answers to common questions our customers have asked us.

What is a heat pump?

The short answer is a heat pump is a refrigerator.  Your refrigerator takes heat from the inside of a cold box and moves it to the air in your kitchen.  When your fridge is running try putting your hand behind it, you'll feel the warm heat that's being moved from inside to outside.  A heat pump does the same thing, in the winter it takes heat from the ground, pond or lake outside and moves the heat inside.  In the summer it takes the heat thats in your home and moves it out.

The reason heat pumps save you so much money is that instead of creating heat from fossil fuels, heat pumps are moving free heat around.  All you pay for is the electricity to pump the heat from one place to another.

How long have heat pumps been around for?

A long time, the first heat pumps were used in the 1920's.  However, the initial cost of a system compared to cheap fuel prices made heat pumps less attractive.  It wasn't until the 1970's and the oil crisis that homeowners began to rethink their energy choices.  Today heat pumps are remarkably less expensive to operate than fossil fuel furnaces.  In fact if you have an oil or LP system the pay back has shrunk to less than five years for total system cost.

(horizontal slinky loop before burial)

Will we really save that much with a heat pump?

Yes you will. 

A typical home in our area (2700sq ft) will use about 1000 gallons of fuel oil this winter.  Fuel oil was $4.55 a gallon on Tuesday May 27th.  Which means that it will cost about $ 4,500 if prices don't go up this winter.

Propane prices may seem better at $2.99 a gallon but whats decieving about propane is that there is less heat in a gallon of propane than a gallon of fuel oil.  In fact it takes 1.4 gallons of propane to equal the heat of one gallon of fuel oil. This means that for the same house you'll need 1,400 gallons of propane.  It's still a little better than fuel oil prices but not much, it'll cost just over $4,100 to heat at these prices.

When we consider a home with a geothermal heat pump running it will cost about $ 1,200 for the same winter.  If you have fuel oil you'd be saving $3,300.  With propane you'd save $2,900 in a single year.

(well drill on an open loop heat pump)

Is there a house that you can't install Geothermal in?

No.

We have Geothermal systems that can fit any house.  In fact we specialize in heating and air conditioning existing homes.  We have installed heat pumps into 200 year old farm houses, log cabins, and manufactured homes.  While new construction is often an easier installation most of our work is in older homes that present more challenges.  The other side of this is that older homes are the ones that most desperately need high efficiency heating systems.   

(Radiant heating is an ideal match with geothermal for new and existing homes.)