We were considering geothermal for our house, but can not afford it. While looking for alternatives, someone told us about air source heat pumps. I know nothing about them. Does anyone have any comments on them? Here is a link to a website: http://www.gotohallowell.com/ thanks in advance!

they are the best way to go for a roi in most climates. while geo is the ultimate system it will take many years to pay for itself.

What is a roi?

return on investment.

thank you!

we like our heat pump.. which does most of the heating for our icf house when outside temps are above 20 deg. F.  My understanding is that they are much improved over the heat pumps of 20 years ago.  We've had no trouble now for 2 winter seasons.  Of course, a plus is that it does all the air conditioning too.  We looked at geothermal but when we saw the costs decided at that time to build icf instead of stick frame and use an air source heat pump with a propane furnace backup and electric micro boiler for the hydronics in the basement and garage.  I think we made a good choice.

fjohnson,

Where do you live, how many square feet are you heating and cooling, and what are you spending for propane and electric on a monthlyh basis? I am trying to make decisions about how to heat two buildings . . .

Bill

Hi Heaven,

            I used to think the same way ( 2 months ago ) was considering Heat Pump Also with Oil furnace, but after Mark Ross
intervention about there DIY Geothermal at Arit.com I switched back to my original idea of GHP.

For under 20k I'm Getting 7 Ton of heat (3 Ton water/water and 4 ton water/air) with all the necessary plumbing
(desuperheater, storage Tank ) , Tubing, Heat plates for 2700 Sqf. My old idea was going to cost me 18k CAN
so for 5k more ... 20k + CAN exchange I'm getting GEO.

Considering that it cost 21.6$ per million Btu with normal Electric Baseboards (0.075$ per KWH) or
24.58$ with Fuel Oil (2.57$/gal X 7.25/0.78 efficiency) and 10.22$(0.075$/KWH) with a Heat Pump
A Geothermal system comes first at 6.27$per.

The thing with the Heat Pump / Oil furnace is that you are close in price to a DIY Geothermal and if your
winters are Cold you will rely on oil 25% of the time and that's with teh current price of electricity and Oil.

Just the fact of having heated floors is great not having those I'd be saving propably -+5k but the miss
insisted on Radiant heating.... lolll

Francis

Hi Francis,

I'm considering the system from arit. How hard was it to install? Did they supply enough information support to help you install and balance the system well? How did you handle the ductwork design and installation?

Thanks,

Greg

Hi Francis,

I forgot one more question. How did you install the radiant tubing - in gypsum, in a special subfloor like warmboard or attached underneath the subfloor? It appears that under the subfloor is least expensive but that requires substantially higher water temps - does the geo heat pump provide warm enough water for that?

Thanks again,

GFreg

Hi greg,

For both your questions i'll have an answer in about 2 months... I'm breaking ground mid july..... lollll