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Non-Tech : Alternative energy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Triffin who wrote (3592)	1/29/2007 3:34:56 PM
From: Jack of All Trades	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 16955

How old is your house? If you have lots of heat loss then it probably won't matter what you do until you fix that...

To: Triffin who wrote (3592)	1/29/2007 4:05:17 PM
From: Rock_nj	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 16955

An average house around 1,800 square feet requires a 3 ton geothermal heat pump for heating/cooling. From my research last year, geothermal heat pumps cost about $7,500 per ton to install. So, you are talking around 24K after sales taxes are included. New Jersey has a rather generous rebate program in which they pay for 70% of the cost of a geothermal heat pump, so check with your state. Operating expenses are minimal; the cost of electricity to run the pump is what it costs. Heat pumps are known to save 30% to over 50% versus the system they replaced, depending on a lot of factors like how inefficient the previous system was, local cost of electrity, amount of home insulation, etc. If you have an old oil heater and a drafty house, a geothermal heat pump could save over 50% if you also insulated the house at the same time. Of course, electricity is not cheap in the Northeast, so the recoup time might take a while. From what I've read, geothermal heat pumps work well. Do some research online. One guy in England who installed a geothermal heat pump, said the installers were laughing at the idea until they were sweating their balls off at the end of the job as the geothermal heat pump was delivering copious amounts of heat to the building as they put the finishing touches on it.