Hi,

--> I live in Montreal, Qc in 1400 sq foot (ground floor/2nd floor) detached cottage w/5000sq ft lot. I noticed a lot of ppl looking at Geothermal have larger homes and and larger lots. Is a home as "small"  as mine a good option for geothermal energy?
--> Is it possible to share the loop system with your neighbour (or neighbours) or doing something along these lines to lower the install costs?
--> In quebec we get a subsidy of 6500$ for the installation of geothermal heat pump, our utilitycosts run 0.054-0.073$/kwh and during the cold months I used  approx 3500kw - off hand does anybody know what the approx payback period woud be or some sort of calculator/formula I can use.

Thanks,
Amir

Sharing with a neighbor is not a recommended practice and will not save much, if any money.

Yes grant money is available but there are many conditions attached to receiving that money; nobody is handing out free money just like that. There are a lot of strings attached.

Your house could be a good candidate for a geothermal conversion.

SR

You could try and talk to your neighbour about consulting a geothermal installer for both our properties to save money on incidental costs like equipment transport etc. Ask the installer if he will give you a reduced rate since he will be getting two jobs side by side and more income for himself. hop around until you find someone who will go for this.

A single geothermal pump can suppy two separate properties (there is a minimum distance between structures) but the system would have to be designed to tak into account both thermal loads. Then you'd have to figure out whose property demands more energy to heat. There would be no way to split the operating costs accurately.

I would not recommend tying two houses together. They may be similar sized, but they are still both unique.

What are you heating with right now? And what's the cost of the fuel (propane, nat. gas, oil).

I have hear odfa condominium project in the states that were vacation homes. The developer put in the geo-thermal loop system and rents it back to the individual homeowners for so much a month. He is responsible for the loop maintenance. Based on the vacancy rate the loop system was downsized a little on the average, and it seemed to work for them.

"In Quebec we get a subsidy of 6500$ for the installation of geothermal heat pump, ..."

Read ALL the fine print before you get excited about these grants; the devil's in the details!! Call Hydro Quebec and ask what qualifies a system.

If your house is all electric, you can probably heat it for about 25% to 35% of what you are now paying.

BTW: I live in Montreal
I own a GSHP
I've received a grant for a GSHP
I am an accredited IGSHPA installer