You need to be more specific. Open loop Geothermal system, or Closed open? Horizonal or Virtual Closed loops system? An open loop Geothermal themal system is the cheapest and least effiecent. Horizonal closed loop Horizonal is more expensive and the Virtual closed loop system is the most expensive. Each one depends on your local conditions for the best one to use. If the well water in your area has a lot of impurities in it, it will cuase the open loop system to have higher maintanence issues and may cause the system to fail within only a few years. A horizonal close loop system requires that you have the property around it to dig the trenches required to lay the piping and a vertical loop system uses drilled vertical holes to install the piping. The virtual closed loops it the most costly, but does not require a lot of surrounding property to install.  

 

Between     $15,000  and $30,000.

Thanks for your replies guys. To answer some questions to help narrow down cost ( although I know this very rough), I think I'll be doing closed loop vertical. I like to do things right the first time, even if I have to wait a year or two save up the loot. I suspect I'll be closer to the 30K mark in the end. At this point the 15K-30K probably answers the question. Hopefully I'll have full on PV system within the year and then move on to the geothermal. Thanks again.
PS. Nice website Dewayne

If you have the yard space available , consider a Horizonal closed loop, both Virtual and Horizonal loops offer the same efficiency, it just the virtual loops is better is you dont have much of a yard to work with. Horizonal loops are somewhat cheaper in install.

My nephew knows a big car dealer that's messed around with alternatives over the last 30 years. This guy has a geothermal setup that I assume is horizontal and he claims it raises hell with terrafirma. He claims the frost goes down 8 feet and heaves the ground so badly that it screws up his yard. I'm getting this second hand so it may be a little off but I can see what he is saying. Any input? By the way, what should drilling run per/ft.

I have no experience with Closed loop systems. I've read frost that extends as far as 5 feet down, but not eight. I would think if is a concern, to dig 10 foot trenches to be on the safe side, since getting a guy with a backhoe is cheaper than a drilling rig.  As for Drilling costs, expect to pay around $15 to $25 per foot drilling. So one 300 foot drill hole is going to run you as much as 7,500 before the cost of putting the piping in. I'm not sure how many holes your going to need, but I would guess several, so three holes is going to run you 22.5k. If you were to rent a backhoe and dig trenches yourself, it would cost between $175 to $300 a day. At $300 a day, you could rent a backhoe for 75 days, I would think you could dig to China in that amount of time.
Hell, you could even buy a backhoe for less.  On the small end, compact backhoes that can dig about 6' to 8' deep start at around $12,000 for a no-frills model, and jump to $20,000 to $30,000 for 9' to 10' dig depths. What some contractor do is they go to a heavy equipment auction and buy what they need. After they are finished with the item, they return it to the next auction and resell it. You could potentially buy a 50k high end backhoe and resell it 6 months later for the same or more than what you paid for it... Depending on how much it's in demand at the time.

I guess the point I'm trying the make here is Avoid drilling if you can, the price difference is considerable.

If a system is short looped ( not enough pipe in the ground ), then as the heat pump pulls heat out of the ground, the ground can freeze around the loop. I suspect this is what is happening with the big car dealer. I have a horizontal loop in my yard and have no problem with the ground freezing. My loop temp has never dropped below 40° F in three heating seasons.

My nephew has a backhoe that I'm sure I could use so the horizontal system would be the deal for me. How many feet of pipe do I need to feed a 3-4 ton system?

I have a 4.5 ton heat pump with 6000' of 1" pipe buried in my back yard.  The pipe is coiled in a slinky loop. Five loops each with 1200 feet of pipe.  Each trench is 120' long.

According to the Link you provided, that may be overkill, they state, "PP&L recommends for each ton of capacity a 100 foot trench, 3 feet wide and 6 feet deep in the Slinky area, 4 feet deep in the pipe header area, using 750 to 800 feet of ¾-inch pipe on a 17 inch pitch." So 3600 feet 3/4 inch pipe should be sufficent. However your a lot more qualified them me to make that determination. So my the question is having more pipe than you require a "bad" thing? I know it pushes the installation costs higher, but does it also push the operating cost higher as well? "Loops for one circulator should use no more than 750 to 800 feet of pipe to minimize pressure losses and maintain turbulent flow"

I'm assuming the pipe is made of plastic, How deep is the pipe buried?

My loop was designed by a geothermal designer (not me). How much pipe to be used was determined by location, Max and Min soil temps, soil type, soil moisture content and a few other things.

The PP&L is using 3/4 inch pipe. Mine is 1" pipe. A 1200' length of 3/4 inch pipe would be problematic. 1200' of 1" pipe works just fine. If my system was built according to PP&L specs, I would be having serious problems. My soil would probably freeze and my COP's would be a lot lower. My heat pump might even stop working if the loop temps dropped to low.

What might work in Pennsylvania will not necessarily work in Utah.

The majority of problems with geo heat pumps are caused by two factors. Undersizing the heat pump and undersizing the loop. Loops using PP&L's directions have a serious potential of being undersized.

For example a loop in damp sand would take 5240' , but the same loop in dry clay would take 8440'.

The is no such thing as one recommendation that works in all applications.

Over sizing the loop is not a big problem other than the cost of installation. Pumping costs would increase a little, but loop temps would be more moderate resulting in greater COP.

My pipe is in a 1'wide by 9' deep trench.

I included the above link to show what a slinky looks like. I do not have any confidence in their loop designing ability.

So I guess it's always better to over estimate the loop length required then to risk undersizing the loop. Better yet, even if you do plan on a do-yourself project, to spend a few bucks and get a Geothermal Designer to make sure your system is sized correctly.  

I totally agree !!

That's the beauty of DX geothermal. The loop has absolutely no guesswork. It won't be undersized. It's completely designed, already!

Great job answering some of the questions I would have posted. This is a really big help in getting a mind set as to whats required to make this stuff work. What info would a designer need to design a system for me? Let me take a guess from what I've read so far : Soil type, water content, ambient temp. averages, soil temp averages, btu requirements of our home and desired system setup (drilled, vertical, horizontal etc). Would the designer want me to supply input no.s or would they want to get them ? What typically would a designer charge ? Thanks again.

You really don't need so much information. You just should seriously consider an EarthLinked DX system. We've installed hundreds. They work wonderfully here in Utah's harsh heating and cooling seasons. There really is not that much needed for design, other than the heating load of the house, vertical vs. horizontal, and earth temperature. THAT'S IT! There also is very little--IF ANY--design charge, since the loop is already engineered.

Just to clarify, a Close loop Geothermal system uses water and a DX system uses Feon? A closed loop geothermal system uses 3/4 to 1 inch plastic pipe and DX uses copper pipe?
 

Yes. DX is a closed loop refrigerant system. It can use various types of refrigerants. It just simplifies the process, and skips one of the heat exchange steps--the water step.

Water heat pumps transfer energy from the ground into water, into refrigerant, into air. DX just transfers from the ground into refrigerant, into air. It's more efficient, and typically less to install.

Ok tuffluckdriller, what sort of price are we talking about for a 2.5 ton unit supplying radiant heating via vertical holes with a ground temp of 50°F? How much cheaper are the drilling costs associated with the shallower DX holes?