Geo Thermal energy is highly efficient. The most expensive part of the central heating and cooling system is not the heat pump and the internal distribution. The most expensive part is the drilling. If you have any abandoned wells that are dry you can drop a loop down the hole and send heat down during the summer and draw it out during the winter months.
We had a ground source heat pump that kept us at 72 degrees all year around. it cost about 25 dollars a month.
Just opening the issue for discussion.
Yes, BUT in most leases they cannot drill a certain distance from buildings, in ours - 200 feet - and all the heat gained by thermal in the hole would be lost in the horizontal transfer, even with good insulation. Maybe I am missing something! If the hole is within 6 feet of the house this would work - but that NEVER happens.
With the drillers wanting/charging $100/foot to drill a well…building a geothermal field for heating and cooling of
a home or other buildings on your land is not cost effective in west Texas.
Even to do it ‘on the cheap’ by digging a 5 foot deep trench and putting black poly pipe in the trench is expensive even if you rent a backhoe to do the digging. A backhoe will command $125/hour with operator. That runs into money QUICK!
Building a home that is partially buried, then bermed up around, is the most cost effective method to have an energy
efficient home in west Texas. I also recommend either precast concrete walls and floors that bolt together, or rebar
frameworks with blown on GUNNITE concrete to form a dome or Quonset building with concrete walls.
Another major bugaboo to building a home in west Texas is the exorbitant charges of the home builder contractors.
$25,000 in materials translates into a $175,000 to $200,000 for the finished home shell. All of it is taken up by
LABOR costs.
Then you have the city, county, and in some cases state inspections and regulations keeping you from a DIY project.
Geothermal heating/cooling has its place in the scheme of things, but not cost effective or viable here in west Texas.
near Verhalen