I do not find many resources on it for Florida. Is the ground temperature here simply too high to be effective for cooling?

And do I really need a geothermal heat pump? Why not just run the return line of my AC coolant into the ground 6-8 feet deep for 10-15 feet of length to further cool the refrigerant before it goes into the outside unit?

Just thinking of the poor man's solution and how to save a few dollars with copper pipe and some ingenuity. I notice the return line currently runs about 80-85 degrees. The coolant side going into the house is about 50 degrees. So if the ground temperature 6 feet down is cooler than 80-85 degrees, then the unit should not have to work as hard to cool it down to 50 degrees right?

or am I nuts?....

thanks for any help, resources, contractors or otherwise.....
David Hayes

The ground temp in Florida is not too high for geothermal cooling.  One of the Major Heat Pump Manufacturers is in Florida.

Look up and read the posts from engineer.   He is in Florida and has posted extensively .


The problem to your poor man's solution is that the ground around your copper pipe will soon be heated up, unless you run a lot of copper pipe, but then  your system will not move the refrigerant through a lot of copper pipe.  

A DX geothermal system does what you want to do very well,  but it does not qualify as a poor man's solution.

Good Luck.

A foot note to Dewayne's thoughts, it's about footprint, the ground can eliminate your air source condenser altogether with 250' of copper/ton.
If you are close to Engineer, he could be an excellent resource to you.
There are all sorts of poor men's solutions. One is to borrow thousands now to save 10's of thousands down the road.
Good Luck,
Joe

There is a lot of truth to what Joe is saying.  I am a CPA and purchased a DX system for financial reasons.  I certainly paid more for it but the payback and return on investment is so good, it is difficult to believe.  At $7K per ton, geothermal in North Texas has a payback of under 5 years and an ROI over 20%, is tax deductible if it is rolled into a mortgage or home improvement loan and is much more comfortable than anything else I have owned.

On my DX, however, my system only needed 150' per ton.  My system was from Florida www.earthlinked.com and they are using their system in their new LEED certified mfg plant in Lakeland.  Very good system. 

It can be done in Florida. The economics are weaker here - much of the rest of the country has a long and expensive heating season during which geo can really shine. Our heating season is overshadowed by our cooling season - deep ground temps run 70-75. Using closed loop it is difficult to get entering water temps much below ambient air temps, so from an efficiency point of view it is tough to compete with good air source equipment.

Geo has a niche in high end systems as well as ocean / beach front where salt air eats up outdoor equipment.

With 150' per ton, Dale, which earthloop did you use? D2? or V2? or is it horizontal?

Is it just me, or is there really no hard information at earthlinked.com?

Stuff like tonnages and performance tables go much further with me than FAQs and pretty pictures of smiling people...

We're running 67 degrees here in North Texas.  I practically don't have a heating bill.  I think my lowest bill was $11 and the highest was $45.  The highest bill in the summer was $135 when we had a stretch of 100 degree weather for about a month.  It's averaging just over $40 since I moved in last summer.  The Elite energy audit projected $35/month so it's tracking pretty close to what he said it should run.  The same energy audit said the 18 SEER air sourced heat pump I priced would average $107 a month and when I add the hot water savings on top of that and net out the amount added to the monthly mortgage payment for the geothermal, I am saving an even $100/month.   The geo ran about $14K and the air sourced heat pump was quoted at $11K so the $3,000 additional cost divided by $100/month will get my money back in 30 months or 2.5 years.  When I factor in the cost of electricity here in Texas going up around 10% or so, the ROI comes in around 30%. 

That's an amazing investment for me.  I am absolutely sold on the Earthlinked geothermal because of it.

I had to look it up.  It was the D1.5. 

Yeah.  There's not much engineering data there any more.  They changed their website to target the end consumer who's not really interested in the engineering.  The end consumer just wants to see the money.  I think they do need a link to the engineering though.