Affordable Geothermal | Future House | Ask This Old House

Ask This Old House home technology expert Ross Trethewey travels to Albany, New York to explore ways to make drilling for and installing geothermal heat pumps more affordable for average homeowners.

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Cost: $18-22,000

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Keywords: Ask This Old House, Future House, Ross Trethewey, geothermal heat

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Affordable Geothermal | Future House | Ask This Old House

[quetzal]

I had geo installed 2 years ago with an energy monitor. For a whole summer of air conditioning I used $70 worth of electricity. This is for a 70-year-old house in hot, humid central Virginia.

[stringsandapick]

Make the house efficient first to reduce the needed size of system. Insulation, air sealing, LED lighting (Incandescent bulbs increase the cooling load).

[ideoformsun]

I've always been interested in geothermal heating/cooling/hot water systems. It's nice to see these improvements for installing them in existing neighborhoods, and with the financing options.

It's just like living in a cave, but without the dampness, the bats, and you get to keep all your side windows.

[ARepublicIfYouCanKeepIt]

Geothermal, the most frequently omitted, yet most consistent forms, of renewable energy...at least here in the US. Well done, as always AskTOH! Love, love, love, Future House episodes.

[dlg]

Geothermal is a no-branier, especially for new construction. Even at $20k, I suspect it'll pay for itself in a decade, maybe less, when you factor in the huge reduction in electricity cost. If you go a step further and couple it with solar, now you have a net zero energy home. I will definitely utilize geothermal+solar when I build my house. Great video!

[rockys]

Damm when I quoted a Geothermal system back in 1998 it was $30k just to drill the well! Payback was over 10 years. For $20k including the whole system today that's a no brainer. Where do I put my deposit down?

[donbrloks]

Had one for 10 years. Broke down often. Most local AC companies won’t touch them. Was a very expensive lesson. Now have air to air heat pump. Located north FL. Your mileage may vary.

[magnusterminus]

I can see good engineered equipment, knowledge and a fantastic solution!

[ultron]

I have a geothermal system that is water to water for heating radiant floors. The system is fantastic. That being said, the real savings come from having 6 zones and plenty of insulation. Not all zones need to be at the same temperature allowing the system to sit idle for some time. Any high operating costs come from the pumps needed to pump the water/glycol out to the ground. When those fail, shell out some money. I have two mini splits additionally for a/c in the summer but when winter hits, they seem to spend too much time in defrost modes where as the geothermal is quite consistent.

[RangeRov]

Exactly what I have here in upstate, NY, but only one hot water tank with solar supplementation and Aztech installed it. I just need to integrate an ERV since my home is so tight.

[ek]

A cheap, efficient way of heating a home in 2020 is to use a CO2 heat pump like Sanden’s system. You connect this to either underfloor heat tubing or to radiators, and it provides hot water year round. These air to water systems can have COPs of 6 or higher.

For air conditioning, small, single room, high efficiency, mini split, variable inverter, heat pump units can do a great job.

An empty room means a mini split is turned off. This way you only get air conditioning where you needed and when you needed.

Another advantage is that if one single mini split unit stops working, while you wait for the air conditioning technician, you can turn on other units to make up for the malfunctioning unit. If one of the units needs to be replaced, the expense is a fraction of a central AC, and the replacement installation is easy to do at a fraction of the cost of a central AC.

A final advantage is that they can supplement the heat of an underfloor or radiator system on very cold nights.

A system as described above has lots of flexibility when things go wrong, and typically when things go wrong is when you need cooling or heating the most.

Here you have the luxury of planning things ahead for when they do go wrong.

For instance, if the wife of the heat technician is in the hospital having a baby on the coldest night of the year, you can wait until the big event is over with additional heat sources.

[XionAzura]

Using liquefaction to drill is an interesting idea.

[icu]

I remember finding some old books circa early fifties my father had outlining geo.

[baxtronx]

So, $200 per month payment like a utility bill. Paid off in 9 years ish. Still more than natural gas payment, but does avoid shortages. We had one morning at -35F this year.

[erikehlert]

Does anyone know if there's a company like this one - doing vertical drilling and tying the system into existing ductwork - in Denver?

[dougmc]

I wish they would refer to this as a "ground source" heat pump, as opposed to an air source heat pump. Using the term "geothermal" confuses it with the high temperature steam used at volcanic hot spots.

[KJSvitko]

Love seeing geothermal as another option for energy efficient heating and cooling.
Some solar in addition to the geothermal to power the electricity used makes it clean energy.

[selenascott]

Nice system if my state still did incentives I would be tempted to purchase this system since energy rates are just due to increase overtime like everything else.

[KJEThompson]

I enjoy y'all in the comments! 🤗 I learn so much from you and get good laughs too! 😁

[yanassi]

The compactness of the new drillers was interesting, as it would apply to smaller existing properties. I’m curious how geothermal modifications work in a foreign countries, economics and political friendliness. I’m considering retiring to a warm climate country possibly yucatan, mexico where hot temperatures solutions would benefit. Geo and solar solutions seem perfect.