Okay, “scoops” may be a tad strong. But is it just a coincidence that the NYT published a long piece on the $2.5 billion geothermal heat pump industry, “With Energy in Focus, Ground-Source Heat Pumps Win Fans,” just a week after my post on “The ‘other’ geothermal grew 33% in 2006“?
Also, my GHP diagram was considerably more informative, though much less eye-grabbing, than the NYT photo:
For those interested in building such a system, the NYT piece does provide a nice link to all the government and utility incentives available around the country incentives for renewable energy installations — www.dsireusa.org. The piece also answer some questions that readers posed here — namely what is the payback for GHPs?
And even without financial incentives from the government or energy utilities, says John Shonder of the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, “ground-source heat pumps have the lowest life-cycle costs in several cost studies that I’ve done” of heating and air-conditioning systems….
The systems pay for themselves in three to eight years, depending on “location and energy prices,” Mr. Shonder said.
In fact, heat pump systems may offer the greatest savings to the owners of commercial buildings, says John W. Lund, director of the Geo-Heat Center at the Oregon Institute of Technology. “For commercial buildings, where you have a fairly large heating and cooling load, the payback period could be two to three years.”
As electricity rates and concern about global warming rise, we can expect a lot more stories about this important technology.
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NY Times is a classic follower – then they blanket the waterfront as they have resources like no other – ultimately claiming ownership and prizes.
I hope they make lifting article ideas from CP a trend – it would radically improve their climate change coverage.
(Climate change should be easy Pulitzer pickings, but so far, regrettably, no big paper seems to be really going for it.)
A twist on geothermal technology is storing summer heat in the Earth for use in winter. That is being tried at Drake Landing:
http://www.dlsc.ca/
This is in Alberta Canada (51 deg N). Their page says “Early performance results indicate that the solar energy system is performing as expected and that the 90% solar fraction will be achieved by year five.” If you can get 90% of your winter heating from the summer sun in Canada, that’s really significant.
From time to time “payback” articles should remind readers that after the new system/purchase pays for itself in 2, 3, 8, … years then there is extra money staying in ones pocket.
A system that costs $10k and pays for itself in 5 years would mean an annual savings of $2k per year once the initial costs are returned. (And possibly even more if inflation/rising fuel costs are included.)
Money that would have to be spent if the old technology were still being used.
(Lots of people don’t have finely tuned financial thinking.)
“A system that costs $10k and pays for itself in 5 years would mean an annual savings of $2k per year once the initial costs are returned. (And possibly even more if inflation/rising fuel costs are included.)”
AND you could plow that $2,000 extra per year into energy saving items. you could buy a whole lot of LEDs and CFLs. You could probably within 3-5 years of saving $2,000/year with your geothermal heat pump be able to pay cash for a solar panel system. so in 5-8 years you could be saving thousands a year and maybe put that into a solar hot water heater. so in ten years or fifeteen your geothermal heat pump could have saved you enough money to buy a solar panel system, as many LEDS and CFLs as you’d ever need and a solar hot water system.
sounds good to me.
speaking as one currently involved in switching an oil-heated home to [something else], i can tell you that for older-smaller houses with baseboard heat (throughout the northeast), the cost of making the house itself work with GHP is pretty heavy.
at the same time, there are fairly small properties with older septic systems leaving little room to drill even closed-loop wells; and air-source, while quickly improving at low temperature, requires ducts in the house that the older houses don’t have or can’t fit without big interior changes.
houston doesn’t have a problem but along the housatonic, yes, problem.
I’m wondering if a geothermal heat pump would fit on a ¼ acre lott.
Rick — Yes, at least with the vertical installation method.
hapa,
Here’s what I did with my house with baseboard radiators: First I improved the envelope, so the heat needed was less. Then I added some panel radiators, and I run 100 F to 105 F water from a heat pump through both new and old radiators. Cheaper than adding ducts, and quieter and more efficient.
hapa said: “i can tell you that for older-smaller houses with baseboard heat (throughout the northeast), the cost of making the house itself work with GHP is pretty heavy.”
Yup. Hot water baseboard is a very limiting heating system in that it can only use high grade heat rather than the relatively low grade heat that a heat pump provides. There isn’t enough radiant area to effectively heat the room when it gets cold outside. That’s why I installed in-floor radiant heat in my new house – it keeps a lot of options open.
There may be a potential solution to retrofitting a baseboard heating system that doesn’t involve ripping most of your house apart. I’ve considered the idea, but never discussed it with anyone who really knows what they’re doing wrt installation methods and costs. Since the problem of using low grade heat is a lack of radiation area, the solution is to (cost-effectively) add radiation area. The addition of fan-coil units in most rooms could provide the additional radiation. The heat pump heats water that is circulated through the existing baseboard plumbing, with fan-coil units spliced into the piping. The cost of doing this still might be a deal-breaker, though.
hapa also said: “and air-source, while quickly improving at low temperature, requires ducts in the house”
Not necessarily. Although there aren’t nearly as many models to choose from, you can find an air-source heat pump with a hot water output. Again, it’s low grade heat that is suitable for radiant heat, or possibly my fan-coil idea.
Good luck with your retrofit.
I didn’t see Charlie’s post until after I posted mine above. I guess it does work. The envelope improvements are very important, too.
‘preciate the info… the number of money and lifestyle constraints are beyond belief… but the dearth of support programs and information at the state level really puts the california effort in perspective.
want a quick home energy audit in CT? fax or mail your application! they MAY get back to you in a month or two! “no you can’t call. no there’s no web form. no you can’t have confirmation of receipt. go away.”
[applause]
*actual local utility web site suggestion. apparently, many utilities with overloaded grids and exploding energy production costs have not yet learned about the whole opt-in/opt-out dynamic.
’ve considered the idea, but never discussed it with anyone who really knows what they’re doing wrt installation methods and costs. Since the problem of using low grade heat is a lack of radiation area, the solution is to (cost-effectively) add radiation area. The addition of fan-coil units in most rooms could provide the additional radiation.