Bought a house, had it inspected yesterday. It has an Econar GeoSource 2000 Geothermal system. Water comes from the house well to the water-to-water heat exchanger to an open loop, dumping to a backyard pond. Basement & main level (rambler) have in-floor heat with forced air cooling. There is a NG furnace for backup.

The house is in frigid Minnesota. Approx. 4200 ft/sq, built about 7 years ago with spray foam insulation throughout, and Marvin windows. His current 12 month average electric bill is $166/mo. (obtained from MVEC electric company), and cost is $0.10/kWh with load control discounts for the Geothermal unit. I thought it was a bit high, but he has a ton of recessed lights (I’m planning to convert to LED.

What kind of maintenance should I start planning? I have contacted the local Econar people about an inspection. Any tips or tricks from the pros or experienced homeowners? General suggestions for a guy moving from Air source heat pump to geothermal in general?

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Kevin

yep. change filter in air handler as directed. if there is a sediment filter in the water line that will require maintenance at intervals dictated by water quality.....and Enjoy.

LEDs are great & all but unless heavily subsidized, at 10cents/kwh the payoff compared to fluorescent technology lighting systems is longer than the anticipated lifecycle(s) of the hardware. Even the best edison base LED assembly luminous efficiency is lower than T8 linears, and barely ahead of the better compact fluorescents. (That said, I have a few CREE LR6s around for their superior dimming performance relative to self-ballasted dimmable CFLs. But the bulk of the ambient lighting is provided by dimming-balasted T8s in lighting coves or cabinet tops.)

I'll let the pros address the GSHP maintainence issues.

Screw CFLs into the cans for now. By the time those die, LEDs will have dropped in price by half or more. I remember paying $15-20 for some of the first CFLs back in the early 90s when $15-20 got you BOTH a case of beer AND a large pizza. Now perfectly good CFLs can be had in bulk packs for $1-2. I'll bet LEDs will get there in 3-5 years.

Find a good local geo guy/gal to keep an eye on the system at least once per year or spend scores of hours here and at geoexchange learning how to watch over it yourself. To each his own.