Going a Little Green

While most of the house uses conventional building techniques, we are incorporating a few green technologies.  The house will be very well insulated and will have several energy star appliances.  The previous owner of the property left a compost bin behind that we plan to use.  Our biggest venture into the green arena, however, is the installation of a geothermal heat pump which provides house heating and cooling and will also supplement the hot water heater in the summer. 

Geothermal systems are quiet and are 400% efficient compared to a high efficiency natural gas furnace which is about 98% efficient.  What exactly does that mean?  And who cares?  If you really want to know, Popular Mechanics provides a short clear explanation. I did quite a bit of research and found this article to be concise and understandable. Check out this link: Geothermal System.  The cost information in this article is out of date--the system cost a lot more than the numbers in the article.  Without the 30% tax credit available for such systems, I don't think we would have seriously considered installing it. Installation of the system was completed this week.  We had a Waterfurnace brand system installed and it will interface to a vertical loop.

I have talked to one person who has a a geothermal heat pump--the electrician working on the new house!  I only found this out when we were determining where the outside outlets would be located.  He asked where the air conditioner would be and I told him we were not going to have an air conditioner because we were installing geothermal.  He then told me has one.  His house came with one that was installed more than more than 20 years ago.  It had broken after many years and he replaced it recently.  The cooling loop was still intact so he only had to replace the heat pump.  He used the same supplier that we are using, E&D Company.  He has lived in this particular house for a few years.  When he told me where he lived, I was surprised.  Ironically, I had been to his house about 20 years ago when the previous owners lived there.  It was the home for the couple that owned and operated Sherwood Forest Theatre where I have done many shows.  It closed many years ago and the owners moved to Florida.  It really is a small world.  Of course, I knew and cared nothing about geothermal heating and cooling back then.

After we have some operating experience with this system, I'll have to report on how well it works and how we like it.

 Plaster rosette in the dining room

 Coil for the coolant loop

 Drilling equipment to drill two 300 ft deep holes

A lot of other work continues on the house.  The wiring, plumbing, and ductwork are all in.  The plasterboard is mostly installed and the plastering is well under way.  The yard has been re-graded and looks great (sans grass.)  We have a closing date of November 5, so things are moving fast.