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Geothermal heating cooling
I know some people have had good luck with Geothermal, and it sounds good in theory, but we have had so many problems with our WaterFurnace system that I wouldn't recommend them to anybody. Not only has it been unreliable, and service and parts hard to get, but our energy costs are double what they projected making the payback period far exceed the expected life of the unit.
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Geothermal heating cooling
Dave, yes I worked with WaterFurnace. The dealer who originally installed ours dropped them due to chronic problems and the poor warranty reimbursement they got from the factory.
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Geothermal heating cooling
In fairness, our fuel bills are a fair bit lower than the neighbors who heat with LP and oil, and our house is a good bit larger. But based on the extra money paid up-front the payback based on energy savings will be around 20 years and there's no way this unit will last that long. And it's not a comfortable heat. Radiant floor heating is the way to go for comfort. Dennis' other criticisms are right on target. The recovery rate is awful. Following a one-week power outage last winter when our house temperature fell into the 50's it took four days to get back to 70.
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I'm at 1100 feet in Oregon so I suspect it is a little colder here than at Peter's house in Alabama. He is right about the installation being critical, but how can you be sure they will do a good job? WaterFurnance sure hasn't backed me up with our problems. I checked references, BBB reports, etc before signing and all feedback was good. Anyway, as far as I know none of our problems are due to installation. Duct pressure tests and blower door tests prove the ductwork and the house to be very tight. The failures on the unit have been electrical and factory defects (TXV Valve). Everybody I've had out has concluded the unit may be marginally undersized for the house, but it was sized by WaterFurnace who had access to our blueprints and they sure aren't interested in standing behind their work.
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Geothermal heating cooling
HuckMeat, it certainly sounds like you've done your homework and I certainly hope your system works to your expectations, but there are no guarantees.
I have energy predictions in writing, too. My loop installer has 20 years of experience and was recommended by the manufacturer too. The installer, dealer, and manufacturer all had good references and I visited owners who were happy, including some of my relatives who live next to the Indiana WaterFurnace factory. None of it helped though, and the only recourse I have now is to sue - which would cost me more than just trashing the system.
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You could use the geothermal for radiant floor as well. Use a geothermal desuperheater to heat the water in a hot water tank with a propane burner, and feed the radiant floor system from there. The propane can be used to bring the water up to temp if it's a little cool and as an auxiliary heat source during power outages. I'm looking at doing something similar when I add radiant floor heat to our main floor. The intention is to use cool well water to help cool the house in the summer, too, using heat exchangers of course to protect the potable supply.
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