first off,this is a great site,we have picked up alot here..

First off where are you located in the Country? What was your heating method prior to converting to Geo? The air a geothermal system puts out should be warm, but definitely not hot unless the backup heat is running. If closed loop becomes too cold to extract heat  it should shut down, so I'm thinking it is working right. So long as there is no returns in the basement, having the system in an unheated basement is a non-issue.

In some areas of the country it's been unusually cold, it could be the system just can't keep up with the load without help. Since you stated your air is always cold, I would guess you don't have any AUX heat to assist the system when it's extremely cold. Since Geo uses Electric to run, one would expect the electric bills to be higher, but the bills should be lower then the oil/gas/electric previous heating method using in the house. 

 

Please measure and post your supply air (air coming out of registers).

Also let us know if water lines to and or from unit are frosted.

How did you used to heat and what did it cost?

What is your unit tonnage? If not known post model number. (Tranquility 27 is a model line (a very good one) but it would help to know how big unit is)

System components in unheated basement could be a problem if they are poorly insulated and / or leaking air.

  Thank you for your response,i'm located in central Pa.Our heating prior to geo was a oil furnace/boiler.we had baseboard through out the house,domestic hot water was off the furnace as well.we installed a solar hot water system w/electric back up in august,that has been working great.there has been no major increase of electric there...
  the geo has no back up heating?non that i'm aware of?it does have a emergency heat setting...i guess what i'm having a problem understanding is,i paid out roughly around $500 in oil cost last winter season..that would be from oct. to march.i'm seeing i'll be paying more in electric this year allready?maybe i'm missing something?
  i should explain that our home is a very old house,i've been sealing up,insulating where needed..in the years prior with the oil furnace it did warm up our cellar,which would eventually rise into the rest of the house,keeping the floor fairly warm..that was what we oringinaly had wanted to have,was radiate floor heating.but the company we had for many reasons pushed the geo with forced air,i've read many positives on geo..so,i'm not sure if i'm just getting alittle ahead of myself on this or not?
   thank's again
 

thank you for your response, our prior heat was oil w/hot water boiler,paid out from oct. to march,roughly $500..that was for heating and hot water..
  as for the electric,we are paying 6.6 cents per kwh
i checked lines,nothing seems frosted,all lines are insulated,i can hear freon gurgling?which i belive to be normal..
 i belive our climate master is a 2 ton...model isTTSO26AGCOOCNNS..i have read nothing but rave revues on the tranquility,but alot of people posting with the same concerns...
  forgive this question,the supply air would be the temp of air coming out of register?correct?if so it's messuring 70 degrees at a set point of 72
 that was one of my concerns having no kind of heat in our cellar..thinking is our geo being effected by humidity?
  thanks again.

EDIT: Oops, just noticed that you said 500 dollars, not gallons - that changes things considerably. How many gallons was that? If it was $2-3 per gallon, that puts us in a gray area where depending on the variables I cited below you're system could be working fine or not.

EDIT #2 (I really have to work on my reading comprehension): I forgot about the pellet stove. Did you use that when you had your oil furnace? If so, how many tons of pellets did you go through for the times in question? Given the unknowns I think I can safely say that your COP is somewhere between 1 and 5.

At a glance your power use sounds reasonable. There are a lot of variables such as the efficiency of your old furnace, how much hot water you used, relative temps between this year and last, other factors affecting your power use, etc. However, making a gross oversimplification let's say that of that 500 gallons of oil you used 450 for heating - at 75% efficiency that would be equivalent to 14,000kWh if you were using straight electric heat. Assuming you’re roughly 2/3 though the season (just guessing here) you’re on target to use about 4,000kWh for the season which would give you a COP of 3.7. Especially at your low rates I’d say that’s pretty darn good!

The geo system should heat air by about 20 degrees, that is if return air (close to room temperature) is 70, then warm air from supply registers (air blowing out) should be around 90. That's approximate, though.

Water lines should not gurgle - that mean air in water lines, which should be flushed. Can you feel / hear bubbles in the small uninsulated copper refrigerant lines? That's not good either.

Are you running constant fan? In other words does this system's blower run all the time?

Climate Master makes good equipment.

thanks, this is really amazing..
  yes last year,in jan,oil here was $3.23per gallon??insane huh?pellet stove,we went through about 1&1/2 ton the season,oct into april..now i have to say the pellet stove gets turned on very early in the year for me,and runs later in the year more then some people would...i have a med. condition and cold and i do not go together...one reason for going this direction..
  forgive me here,you say COP?
  i think i can see some light here now,thanks

I'm starting to wonder if geo compressor is running properly or at all. There should be a hand-feelable temperature difference between entering and leaving water lines (Temperature measurements there would help us help you)

Coeffienent of performance (COP) is a measurement in the overall effeicency of the system. In simplist terms its a measurement of how much energy you put into and what you get out measurement. A so called High Effiency Oil or Gas furance (90% effecient) system has a COP of .9, so for every 100 units of gas or oil you burn, you get 90 units of heat to heat your house and 10 units are wasted in the process. Geothermal Systems range from 3.0 to 5.0 COP, that is for every 100 units of Electric used, you get 300 to 500 units of heat to heat your house.  This is possible because your using the ground as a heat sink source, your either stealing heat from the ground in the winter or giving it back to the ground in the summer.

thanks for your responce,yes,your correct theres about a 20 degree diffrence,temp setting at 68, air at register about 85...at the returns running around 68..i just really don't understand why it feels so cold?i posted that our home is very old,i've been insulating everywhere i can...the contractor that "installed"our geo left allot of openings,unfinshed work that i'm try to take care of...thats a story in its self...
  water lines are not making any noise,when unit shuts down,there was some?trickling/gurgling in the freon line...after a couple runs,shutting down,kicking off,didn't hear anything?
   fans set to auto,runs alot though...
  the temp reading i took at the line running from geo unit to air handler reads around 86 degrees?not too hot to the touch...all lines are insulated....
  the temps i'm getting are with a thermometer from my greenhouse,measures inside/outside temps..i understand the readings are most probable off?but,hey,its what i got
from what can hear,the compressor seems to be running? i do belive from what i've been reading on this forum that climate master is a very good geo thermal system...reading lots of rave reviews....we're just somewhat unsure of this whole thing...this is all very new to us...
  thanks again...

Our problem from here is so many variables.
It sounds like your usage is fairly reasonable, but it is affected by the supplemental. One thing is for sure, the less you spent before, the harder it is for the geo to pay for itself; if it cuts your oil usage by a third it's still only $150. That's a long payback period.
Your air delta t sounds good, entering and leaving water could easily be indistiguishable to the touch.
Good Luck,
Joe

DM HOOVER,

Does your fan run more than just a few minutes after the compressor stops? Do you have a humidity sensor on your Climatemaster thermostat? Or a model number?

Regards, Masoud

thanks for your response
no humidity sensor on the thermostat..its the climate master ATA32U01
at last check the fan ran maybe 5 minutes after the compressor shut down,i have heard it run longer,but,thats 1 thing i'm happy with,i really don't hear the geo running most times,i think its a very quiet unit..the air handler is alot louder,nothing to be upset about..i've gone into my cellar and was supprized to see the geo running...thanks

thanks for your responce..
  thats where we're at right now..maybe i'm jumping the gun too fast?its only been up and running since late november..i'm just not the cost savings?but now here on this forum,its been proven to me,that temp wise,its as close as you can get?
 thanks

DM HOOVER,

Where did the installer leave a lot of openings, unfinished work?

Regards, Masoud

Ok, again using some very gross estimates (75% of oil for hot water) with the pellets you're looking at the equivalent of roughly 9000kWh per year delivered heat. If you had an average-ish COP of 3.5 (COP is just energy delivered/compressor power, I think it's generally used because we engineers cringe when people start talking about efficiencies over 100%) you would use about 2500kWh for the season assuming similar temperatures. Since January was particularly cold if your only heat source was the geo I'd say your usage could be reasonable given the huge uncertainties involved. However, if you've also been burning pellets at a good rate this season it makes the geo performance sound less than stellar. 

Not to belabour the point, but it's perfectly possible that your system is working fine - there's just not enough accuracy in the numbers above to say definitively one way or the other. But depending on the amount of pellets you've gone through this season I'd say there's at least good cause to dig into things more thoroughly. I'd start by checking out some of the things suggested in this thread (water and air temps, etc.).

Do you have a way of tracking the electric use of your HW system? That could be a major contributor to your power use. If it was sized for summer in winter months you'd probably be using 50% or more electric backup in the winter months depending on the system. This is why it's nice to have a submeter on the geo system so you know exactly how much it uses.

I'm a little confused.  I have an 1800 sq. ft. home in Northern Mich. and last year heated with forced air oil, and bought a pellet stove Jan 19th.  I went through 500 gallons of oil, and a little over a ton of pellets per month after I installed the pellet stove.  I put in a 3 ton open geo system in Oct of 08 and my kw usage is about 1000 for Dec and 1000 for Jan at .069.  I have a 2 stage Comfort-Aire with the heat strips disabled, and keep thermostat (honeywell vision pro) at 68º.  It seems like you could heat your home very easily with almost anything since you only used 155 gallons of oil and 1 1/2 tons of pellets all last year?   

I agree coolmcool. The amount of oil and pellets DM Hoover used seem low.