We may be moving to Las Vegas this fall so I started looking at houses.  One can purchase a lot of home right now, but I notice a trend in Vegas construction: tall ceilings, big windows and nothing growing in the yard.  Many of these houses appear to be constructed to look good, but I wager they are really inefficient with code-minimum insulation and no thought given to glazing orientation, overhangs or shading (not that there are any trees to provide shade).   Most listings do not specify whether the cooling system is conventional or a heat pump, but a Google search reveals an apparent dearth of ground source heat pump installers in Vegas.  The electricity rate falls right in the middle of the 21 largest US cities, so 'cheap electricity' cannot be used as an excuse to keep a conventional system.  Is there any hope of economically converting to a GSHP in Las Vegas?  It seems like it would be low-hanging fruit for an installer considering that the existing houses cannot be made significantly more efficient.

A quick searcdh of international ground source heat pump association (igshpa) accredited installers located three in Las Vegas alone and more around the state.
j

Thanx Joe! Google located articles on geothermal power generation and ground-source cooling at area schools but didn't link me to the igshpa site; now I know where to search and I appreciate the info. Depending on where we land, it appears I'll have to decide whether to spend limited dollars on a GSHP to lower HVAC operating costs or on a photovoltaic installation to lower the overall electricity bill. Thanx again!

Posted By MountainStone on 19 Apr 2011 07:39 PM
...   Is there any hope of economically converting to a GSHP in Las Vegas?  It seems like it would be low-hanging fruit for an installer considering that the existing houses cannot be made significantly more efficient.

One thing you should know about Vegas in basements are a rarity because the ground is very hard to dig up. It's far cheaper to add an oversized garage this is it to dig a basement in Las Vegas. Using the same logic, digging trenching to add ground loops would face a similar problem.  Can it be done? Absolutely, but it will probably not be cost effective. There are 15,000 houses for sale in Las Vegas, add a basement to the required features and that number drops to 120. And 70% of those that do have basements are 500k and up.

That's why there are no Geothermal installers in Las Vegas.


There are a fair number of pools however, out of 15,000 houses for sale, over 3,000 have pools. I would estimate that an small pools would have about 10% and a large pool 20% of excavated material when compared to a house basement. And I estimate a close loop geothermal system trenching would need 2 to 3 times more material excavated than a basement.
     

Dry desert soil almost certainly pushes geo towards vertical loops rather than trenches.
Solar may be just as good an idea here.
j

Dry desert soil almost certainly pushes geo towards vertical loops rather than trenches.
Solar may be just as good an idea here.
j