My ground loops (four vertical loops 185') were installed a few weeks ago.  Today, the electrical and geothermal contractors showed up to start the install of the mechanical equipment.

My 28 year old 60% efficient forced-air natural gas beast was yanked out and the GSHP was set on its pad.  Pump pack was mounted on the wall and electrical hookups were made.

Tomorrow the geothermal guys come back out to install the 50g preheat water tank for the desuperheater, fill and pressure test the ground loops and charge the system.  Tonight they have us running on the backup electrical 10KW strip since it's supposed to dip below 0° tonight.  It only got up to 6° above today but the fireplace alone was able to keep the inside temp around 63°.  They will also remove the old outdoor air coil.

Hopefully by this time tomorrow night we can start enjoying the full benefits of our new HVAC equipment.

Equipment list:
WF Envision ND049 dual stage forced air
Honeywell TruSTEAM HM512VPIAQ Whole-house humidifier w/VisionPro 8000 humidistat
Aprilaire 5000 electronic air cleaner

With the effective install date of 2009, we'll have to wait until next year to realize our federal $2,000 tax credit for geothermal installations.  Our local utility will cut loose with a $600 credit for the SEER specs on the air conditioning component this year.

And, we're done!  My system went online this afternoon!

After years of sitting in sweaters with 64° daytime/night setback temps and 68° for an occupied setting, it will take some getting used to more or less a continuous 70° environment.

Yesterday they pulled the old NG furnace out so we had to run all night using only the 10KW electric strip.  Outside temp got down to -6° here in Minneapolis but the emergency stage managed to keep us at 64° during the night.  Unfortunately, daytime temps are going moderate quite a bit and we'll be basking at or just above the freezing point.  Night lows will only be down to the high teens or low 20s.

Last year we had a mild first half of the winter then it got cold in February and March.  This year it got cold early.  In fact, January 31 was the first day all month we got above the freezing point.

I'm sure my first utility bills will disappoint a bit but remember we took out a very old and inefficient conventional gas furnace.  Now we sit back and enjoy the comfort and wait to see if the Feds will bump up the $2k limit for the new geo tax credit.

Read your electric meter now so you'll know what part of the next bill belongs to geo.

Keep a close eye on waterside temps

congradulations pipemajor, I hope your install gives you years of trouble free performance. We had a geothermal installed last July 2008 and actually we are happy with the kind of heating and cooling, we are just concerned with all the specifications and if we are getting what they say, I suspect that the variables are pretty hard to predict with the geo designer software and if you get in the ball park with it your lucky. We had -8.5 as our lowest temp
and tonight we could see -4 degrees, we keep the tstat on 69 and seems to keep us comfortable, all the other portable thermometers indicate 70-7 degrees.
Looks like you have the same thermostat as what we have, it sure is easy to use.