we bought an old 2 story farm house on central ohio. It is 3,800 sq ft with 12 ft ceilings built in the 1870's. Has a fuel oil furnace. We are rehabbing the house and plan to move in 2014. We are using 200-300 gallons of oil/month and only keeping the house at 50. We have a lot of insulating and repair to do but was starting to look at heat sources and was wondering about geothermal.

Thanks

It depends, but generally, if you plan to stay there, geo compares well to oil or propane.

Paybacks against propane or fuel oil often run less than 5 years for geo.
Have a local pro prepare an operating cost estimate for you.
Good Luck, Joe

As much as I like geo, if you are out of there in 2014, I'm not sure it'll make much sense. Run the numbers, maybe incremental resale value will tilt the scales.

I think the OP meant that they are going to work on the house for the next 4 yrs and move into in 2014.
WOW on the oil usage.....sounds like your gonna be replacing plumbing, elect. etc for this house. If ya not gonna be living there for some time, why not just turn the water off, drain the lines and not heat at all. I could only imagine what the 200-300gals of oil would cost/month!!
Geo is the only way to go especially if this is gonna be your last house! You might want to find out when the rebates end and be sure to have it installed before they end even if your house isn't finished yet!