We are in the process of planning to build a home this year and are looking at the possibility of installing a geothermal system for our heating and cooling. Now after speaking with a geothermal installer I'm not so certain. He asked what type of system I was interested in and when I told him a horizontal loop he informed me that they no longer install them. When I asked him why he told me that the frost line goes down 42 inches so in order to keep the loop from freezing up it has to be installed 8 feet deep. He said that at that depth it costs just as much to install a open loop system.

Do horizontal loops in southern Michigan really need to be installed that deep?

Is it true when they are installed that deep the install costs are the same as a vertical system?

TIA

You need to contact Mike Dilling at www.heawarsaw.com . He'll know if that's true. I'm not convinced that's right.