Adding This Can Save You Money Summer & Winter! 

I built my house in 1994 and installed a geo thermal heat pump system. I live in Northern Ontario Canada and my heating costs are equivalent to operating a 18 cubic foot freezer. My house is 1800 Sq feet. I had to replace the unit in 2010 and the new heat pump is more efficient. I can't believe more people don't take advantage of this awesome technology. Especially in a semi rural environment.

Yes on new construction, especially new developments, the ground loops get buried even before foundations get poured.

I have had my ground source geothermal for 5 years and coupled with my solar panels have been net zero home for energy. I don’t pay any type of gas bill and my Solar array has eliminated my power bill. There have been many comments about not being worth it and being complicated. It has been around for a long time, it is simple and after tax incentives not IHC more than typical natural gas/ propane for install. It makes your home heating and AC needs all electric and you can easily counter those energy needs with solar. I have a whole home battery back up system to go along with it making it possible to run in grid down scenario. Good stuff.

My cousin in Iowa, installed a geothermal heat system into an older home about 5 years ago. He loves it. They drilled down vertically 20 30 ft or something like that with four five loops. Unless there's bedrock, drilling vertical is pretty basic and there's a lot less disturbance to terrain. He told me that the contractors preferred vertical drilling to horizontal burying. But what do I know.

I investigated this when my house was built in 2007. At the time, the added installation cost made it prohibitive. I also knew a person whose system leaked and my air handler is in my attic and I didn't want the added risk. In the winter, when my heat pump is running all day and night, I really wish I had ground source system. They also don't have the fan noise that you get with a normal heat pump, so that's an extra bonus.

When retrofitting an old building, make sure to have a good conversation with your contractor/installer. Because you will find that to reduce the cost of installing any heat pump system, isolating (edit: should be insulating) the building will come first, second, and third, before installing your heat pumps. This will reduce the amount of heating/cooling required from your heat pump system, and make it far more affordable.

Switched from a fairly efficient air source heat pump (Trane XL18i) to a ground source heat pump (Bosch SM). Simple truth is that the air source heat pump works best when you need it least, and struggles when you need it most. It's only great in mild climates. Geothermal is a revelation, both in comfort/performance and also efficiency. For reference, we have two vertical wells, and total cost was about 31k. 18k for the system, 13k for well/plumbing work. But the whole system fell under the federal tax credit, so 26% off takes it to maybe $23k all-in

My house in southern Finland has vertical geothermal (230 m) for 9 years now and we have been about ~70% of the heating costs compared to oil. I'm really happy with it as it requires less maintenance and helped us to get rid of oil. It has already paid back 25k€ investment and is getting even better now as the energy prices go up.

I live in a 200 year old cobblestone home in central NY and we just installed a horizontal geothermal heat pump along with enough solar to run our entire farm. To be clear, we have fairly new insulation and replaced every window in the house 4 months ago. We loving the systems so far.

I'm planning on buying a piece of property, preferably around 2-5 acres in a couple of years and will be putting in geothermal myself. The vast majority of the cost of a geothermal system is installation, so if you can run a backhoe and have even the slightest mechanical aptitude, these things are pretty easy to install yourself. I'm willing to bet that at least 2/3 of the cost is installation, so if you can do it yourself, you can probably save $10k on the system.

I live in south Texas and in the process of building an ICF home with rainwater collection, a well for irrigation and as a backup water source, geothermal heating and cooling, and solar with battery backup (enough to remain off grid if I choose). No matter what happens with the weather or the rest of the world, I'll be comfortable.

We live on a boat in Florida and all of our a.c. is water cooled. So kinda like geothermal and they're very efficient as well. We love them!

This is really great, I love hearing about this. It looks to me like improvements in the machinery and techniques and technology to build the vertical systems are desperately needed for retrofitting existing homes. I was wondering about the possibility that after enough time passes the temperature in the ground will change enough to alter efficiency significantly. But I realized that Summer and winter are working against each other. In summer the ground is being heated and in winter heat is being withdrawn from the ground. There could still be an imbalance but it would take longer than if both were working in the same direction. As another commentor mentioned, if there is an imbalance between winter and summer demands, the ground temperature may gradually change. But I would think that it wouldn’t change that much before enough heat flow from outside the region compensated.

That open loop is not ground source but water source (but yes, is geothermal category). The closed loop are ground source for heat pump. One important thing: there are 2 types of (closed) ground source for heat pumps 1) horizontal geothermal with coils put under 1,5-2 meters, flat 2) vertical geothermal with a very deep and long one U coil, deep between 100-200 meters depends how much KWh thermal energy you need. In the UK where the space is limited and you can't put horizontal closed loops is used one shaft, well where you put the down coil and up coil. And, yes, geothermal (closed) source are far better than air source. Is the perfect source and with heat pump is the perfect solution for heating and cooling.

My uncle had a large house built on a geothermal system and he said it was a "no-brainer" when building a large house because the bigger the space you are heating and cooling, the better the investment it becomes and the easier it is to offset with a smaller solar array. They have a complicated system that helps control the temperatures of 4 different locations on their property. The main home, guest home, garage, and green house. I don't know why more businesses are not looking into this as stores, warehouses, and factories are always hard to temperature control.

We bought 5 acres in central Texas and planning on building there. Geothermal is definitely in our plans. Thanks for the information confirming our decision!

Seriously love your videos!! The topics you cover are interesting, and the video quality is top notch!

I lived in Phoenix at one point and first bought a home with a evap cooler which worked great until monsoon season when the humidity is driven up to 90%+ along with high temperatures. I soon bought an air conditioner for those monsoon times but kept the evap for other times. I moved to Santa Fe, NM in 2007 and bought a LEED certified home and promptly put a solar system on my roof. I have an air conditioner which the solar pays for. In the winter it can get fairly cold here, I still have the original gas furnace with a gas fireplace on the lower level. I discovered that in the winter it is cheaper to use a small room size electric heater to follow me where ever I am in the house reduces the cost of using the gas furnace. Because my total house is pretty efficient I've pretty much reduced the cost of heating and cooling my home. Most of the time using a combo of tools makes the most sense.

For USA, there is a free source of abnormal heat from the lava under yellow stone park. Free heat can be circulated for several states around that

Great episode! Thanks Ricky!

Thanks for this information. I would think that new housing development would be the easiest to do. Most modern developments have to have a water runoff retention area anyway, perhaps that area could also incorporate a common geothermal source too. I am watching another RU-vidr in New York who is building a new home where he is heating with under floor radiant heat using a pond for his geothermal source.

Wish I’d known more about these 7 years ago when i was getting a new build. Like you said.. win win win.. the extra cost going this route would have been minimal and well paid off already. Makes a good resale investment too.

I live in minnesota and we got a new Bosch IDS 2.0 Air source heat pump 2 years ago. It pretty efficient as a heat pump, works well enough down to around 0F, and is very efficient as an AC. We were doing a lot of work that summer and also got an induction stove, solar panels and new windows so there was a bit of question for us about if we were overstretching financially. I'm pretty pleased, what what we installed but i do wish i had looked more thoroughly into geothermal before getting the heat pump and spoke to geothermal specialist and not just the normal HVAC folks, but honestly, i just wasn't informed enough at the time to dig into it too much and happy to accept the HVAC guy's comments of how ground source is too expensive. It may have been in the end, but I am convinced it would have been worth stretching for if it wasn't too far above what we were paying anyway.

I had 3 estimates done to have geothermal installed. My house is extremely efficient 3400sqft. 2400sqft of shop and storage downstairs. 1000sqft of living space upstairs. All heated and cooled all of the time. The first 2 estimates came back $45,600 and $45,879. I couldn't afford that. Both had my house plans and both said I needed 6 ton. And had wildly different ideas for equipment. I found out a local HVAC company had been installing geothermal for over 35 years. After looking at my plans. He said that I would only need 3ton. But need back up. For when we get long stretches of -20f. Had way simpler ideas for equipment. I thought maybe I'll be able to afford my dream house. After doing heat calcs. He called and said he found a 2 stage unit. That would run on 3ton and ramp up to 4ton for long -20f times. Wohoo my dream is going to happen. His estimate came back....$45,200 Last ditch effort I asked if the HVAC guy for 1,700,000sqft plant that I work in. Could help me out. He said that he had already helped 2 others at work with geothermal for their homes. He ordered the equipment that the last estimate had listed. That was all the help he offered. And I installed it. I used the guy that all 3 estimates listed for the 4 coiled horizontal loops across the end of my 1 acre lot. My estimate from him was $5,000. ($700-$1,200 less than price listed in the estimates!) Loops installed and he came back and filled the system once done. I decided to use all infloor heat 6zones 3 in shop 3 in upstairs living space. I used warmboard upstairs. (I think it's the best most efficient infloor system). So a little more expensive. Inslab downstairs. I installed the 2" of foam and pex and manifolds before the slab went in. Total cost $23,000 including the loops. Doing it myself. Took me a few months. Figuring out how and installing it myself. If I was a contractor who knew what I was doing . It probably would have taken a few days. For $22,000 profit. I had estimates for conventional HVAC of $26,000-$34,000 for my house. Going on 4 years. Running geothermal. And 5 years plus of the 10,080 watts of solar. Funny another $23,000 after tax rebate. 5 years zero bills. Entire house is all electric. Oh yah I drive a forklift for a living.

Love your work. Been on the path for awhile. I consider transportation fuel part of our energy cost. This is due to the fact that it is!! As you know it's the least efficient system by one hundred miles. We view our 3.4kw rooftop solar as a gas pump offsetting $5 gal gas. Eliminated all gas other than furnaces. Your video helpful as we plot the move to heat pump. We live on Lake Erie just west of Cleveland. Hoping Dandelion opens in Ohio soon! Current geothermal installers are boutique outfits. Very expensive, very long installation process. Huge drilling rig. Booked one year ahead due to slow installs. Thanks for enlightenment!

I have built several homes for myself and installed HVAC for a living including geothermal. My conclusion is this, spend your money on lowering your heat loss and heat and cool with mini splits with COP’S of 4+. If your home is constructed to use 50 to 90% less energy by taking the 20K you would have spent extra for Geothermal you will always have that efficiency built in no matter what energy prices are. The other advantages of a mini split system is zoning which may actually be cheaper than Geothermal to run.

Hey first time ive seen ur video, i just wanted to say ur awesome... Gr8 calm enthusiastic presentation.... Got half the info i needed for my new build... Thanks Nq, London uk.

I had a 700 foot vacation home that I upgraded when I retired. I built an addition of 1200 sf. and installed a geothermal heat pump. The original cabin was heated with radiant baseboards for a monthly cost of 360 dollars. The finished house after the addition was completed was 1920 sf. and cost about 125 per month to heat. Some of the savings came from added insulation and thermal windows but the overall cost of heating was so improved I was amazed. My estimates of heating costs were way too conservative. The system cost 18K so recovery would take years but the cost for cooling in summer went down even more. Retrofitting is a greater expense than installing in new construction so I would do geothermal again with no hesitation .

I'll be replacing my methane furnace and on-demand water heater with air-source heat pumps and same for the dryer, whenever we build a new place or find a tear-down retrofit we'll look at ground-sourced. The furnace and water heater will likely be as the existing system ages a bit more or if it breaks, the water heater is new with the latest solar expansion but it would be nice to cutoff the gas all at once at that point

I had a geothermal HVAC installed in 2018 and it cost 18,500 USD (3 ton package unit, all new ducking, and a 2 well open loop system.) The tax credit rebate i got was $4800 which paid for the wells entirely. After the tax credit the whole install was less than the cheapest meh efficiency air system i had been quoted. A point of clarification though. The open loop system you mentioned is a pump and dump system, which not only isnt terribly common anymore, but is on the EPA radar for a possible ban. There are other open loop systems where they pull water from the ground and then deposit them back into the ground.

Excellent Video Thank you for the costings. Geothermal is not big in Australia. However with information like this that is going to change.

Living in mid-west Finland. 77 to -13 deg F through the year normally. Have had vertical geothermal system for 10 years with a 525 ft deep hole for a 1700 sqft house. Since I went from oil I already had radiators and investment after tax reduction was about 11-12k€. Electricity for all heating is about 4500 kWh/year and cheap ~0.125€/kWh (incl tax and distribution). I used to burn about 2000 liters of oil for a price of around 1€/l the last time i bought it (last couple of years up to 1,5€/l). Best investment I've ever done.

I love this tech. It's like making normal building into an underground shelter without the claustrophobia. We don't need it so much where I live on the PNW coast, but even in Seattle and Portland they are learning that 100 F days are a growing problem. The truth is that most people will still be living in these same old houses thirty years later, so we need to improve retrofitting. Directional boring seems be getting closer to the cost of open trench excavation, so I could see more efficient and affordable digging and installation eventually being done with improved directional boring. This would make it more accessible because you won't need a large piece of land, and you won't even need to disturb the surface.

Great video. thanks. The vertical version seems a solution for retro fitting - it will be good to see some cost comparisons with vertical/horizontal installation. i remember seeing a video on a vertical installation a while ago and they seemed to think it doesn't cost as much as you think

Does the material of the sink matter? Dirt vs clay vs some artificial stuff.?

Ground source thermal systems definitely have a place in residential construction and probably should be made a matter of building code in some areas.

I bought a home in Missouri on 20 acres. It had an old seer 9 heat pump that was on its last legs. I had to choose between a higher seer rated heat pump or some alternative. My state offers no incentives and my electric costs out in farm land was very cheap but I looked at things in the long term. My old heat pump was pretty cheap to run in the summer but in the winter when temps dropped below freezing it was almost useless and it required over $2000 a year worth of propane to supplement the heat pump. Summer bills averaged $150 a month but winter bills for electric and propane totaled $350-$400. My house has good double pane windows and very good insulation. I decided on geothermal. Altogether with a federal rebate my system cost me $14000 for a home that needed a 5 ton heat pump. I no longer use any propane (other than for my BBQ) and my electricity went down to $140 a month. My home is 4400 sq ft counting a finished basement. I’ve had the geo now for 12 years and my propane savings alone effectively paid for the geo system in 5 years because the cost of propane went up significantly. I’ve saved enough on this investment to pay for a 9.25 kw solar system so now my electricity costs my $30 a month. It’s an amazing way to save money even in an area with cheap electricity. Another consideration is that it’s a given that utilities will always go up. My electric coop prices while very cheap compared to where I used to live has still gone up 30% in the last 18 years and will go up again soon. Our propane has gone up 300%. So you can pay more now and less later or you can get stuck paying a lot more later.

By far the best bang for the buck is the air to air heat pump mini split. Cheap to buy and cheap to install and it cost me less than $5k to have my house heated and cooled. I live in Europe. My house is a 2 storey house with 3 bedrooms. I installed in my living room on the ground floor, one 18k BTU mini split AC which heats/cools living room and the kitchen. Also on the ground floor I installed one 12k BTU for the staircase and as the heat rises, it heats the staircase nicely all the way up to the second storey. In two smaller bedrooms I installed one for each room, two 9k BTU mini splits. The large bedroom has 12k BTU mini split. When you set them up all together (in my case 5 individual mini splits), they heat/cool my whole house, including two washrooms (this system requires open doors throughout the house) and like I said, the whole thing from the scratch cost me $5k!!

It would be very nice to see a video of someone actually putting a system together. Every video I'm seeing is talking about how great geothermal is, and then they go into all of this technical jargon like we're all studying to be engineers. Make a video of a system being put together, without skipping steps and without extreme zooming and shaky camera shots, and then show us the system working in the Summer, and then the Winter. I guess that is WAY too much to ask!

Very nice visualizations of heat transfer. Well done.

This was one of the major pros when we bought our house almost 9 years ago. Living in Sweden it is rather common and our system was installed in 2004 so the 20 year mark is soon coming up. Here most systems are made with a borehole into the bedrock but where we live in the south there isn't much of that so we have a ground loop. It also has an extra heater if it gets too cold to cope, but that rarely happens, I think we have used it maybe for 40 hours during us living here. I only would like the heater to be a bit smarter so that we could use it better in accordance to electricity prices.

We have a ground coupled heat pump system that we put in the house when it was new 27 years ago. We have seven vertical wells 200 ft deep and have about 6,000 square ft in our Kentucky home. Our house is totally electric. The average electric bill is around $300 a month. When I was in undergraduate school (almost 50 years ago) I took multiple courses in physics and chemistry. When building our house I took great pains to make sure that it was built well thermodynamically. We are still benefiting from decisions made 27 years ago.

I’ve been wanting to do geothermal at my house and Fishroom . But the cost is stopping me. Hopefully one day I’ll get it.

Thank you, very important topic! I was wondering if I need any heating or cooling in passive house in Poland. Not anymore, because yesterday I learned about polish autonomous houses, which are about twice as efficient as passive houses. Gonna build one.

The combination of geothermal heat pumps and net metered solar power make an even more economical arrangement. You pay zero for utility bills and have reasonable paybacks, plus once installed the geothermal well (the most expensive part) doesn't need to be replaced for generations (not years, generations). The well material is polypropylene tubing which will last for hundreds of years in the ground.

Another benefit of heat pumps-especially the ground source heat pumps, and especially given the dramatic climatic shifts from climate change-is that they work in a bi-directional manner. So in a place like Texas where homes, buildings, and the grid are equipped for intense cooling in the summer, they are not so prepared for intense heating in the winter. Or in the Pacific Northwest they are equipped for heating but not cooling in the event of a climate catastrophe drive heatwave. The ground source heat pump helps address such problems that can turn deadly even.

I live in the Portland, OR area where the mighty Columbia River provides abundant, cheap energy together with the wind turbines in the Columbia gorge. Even here, with rates below 9 cents a KWH, heat pumps are worth the cost.

there's a guy in some cold place, minnesohio that grows oranges in greenhouses, 20' drifts, he has a fan sucking air through buried pipes to keep the temperature up enough to keep the trees alive. this is one kind that nearly anyone could install, if they had some kind of trencher.

I’m just building a 6 bed house in the uk. It will have superb insulation and a ground source heat pump. 4kw solar on the roof and 20kw battery. The battery will keep it all going until cheap rate electricity is available over night. Then it once again powers the house till the panels take over. On a less green note I’m building a 14m swimming pool in a building in the garden. This will be heated by 2x airsource pumps. They will be great in summer when I can power them with solar and air temps are high, but I fear for the winter!

I wish you had touched on using a liquid to liquid heat pump that you could use with an in-floor hydronic heating/cooling system. I know both Bosch and Trane have at least one model and I think Carrier does as well. Don't know where we'll build, other than it will probably be between the Mississippi River and the Appalachian Mountains. I want lake/river frontage while the Boss is more interested in acreage. We both are agreed that too close to a city is RIGHT out.

I'm trying to electrify my home. I'm really interested in geothermal. I had to replace my water heater recently and water heater installers were all pushing for gas water heater. There were major shortages but I was able to get a slightly undersized electric tank water heater eventually (wanted tankless). I'm not sure if it's common elsewhere but everyone pushes gas everything and make you feel crazy for trying to get something else.

5:13 COP range 300-600?! I need a correction here! What was he meaning? 3.00 - 6.00, maybe? Edit: Ah, he probably meant percent. Btw, this misconception of 160%, 350% efficiency just kills me (engineer). People should just stick to COP and say 1.6 or 3.5.

I have an Air source Heatpump which I added to replace a gas boiler in 2016 in the U.K. I also have a 2.9kWp solar pv system and a Powerwall 1. I get FIT (feed in tariff) payment for every kWh generated and the battery virtually guarantees self consumption and allows a extension of the night cheap rate in winter to mid-morning. I get 7 years of RHI (renewable heat incentive) payments resulting in approx £100 pa energy costs for a 1950s built 3 bed semi-detached with extra wall insulation installed. Once the RHI ends annual cost will be more like £900 pa - still very cheap. The FIT continues until 2035, after which I would hope the electricity prices will have started to fall again as the grid reaches high proportion of wind & solar (the cheapest electricity). I may not be alive then but my son will benefit from the virtual energy independence long after I’ve gone. My energy supplier is the the most renewable of the companies in the U.K. being responsible for a large proportion of land based wind generation, so I consider my home as 100% renewably powered already. The internal temperature is the most stable and consistent it ever has been. The Heatpump heats the water in the radiators (some of which were resized to match the lower head temperature). The system has no overshoot and copes fine in the coldest temperatures we ever get here. I get no summer cooling, but very few homes do here as the need has historically only been felt for a couple of weeks per year. The Heatpump cost a similar amount to a replacement gas boiler but the installation costs were significant with totally replaced hot water system, and upgraded radiators. Good investment given the low running costs - perfect for retirement on limited income.

The diagram shown at 0:57 appears to show a mini split system. Typically ground source heat pumps are located inside the house which gives them better longevity that you do address later in the video.

ground source and solar is the way. I can even cool my house by only using 2 pumps and a heat exchanger (passive/natural cooling)

Hi Rick, Interesting following your journey to reach zero energy etc. Please mention / schematic diagram at the beginning how much heat is lost where in a building, eg: Walls = 35%; Roof = 25%; Floor = 15%; Doors = 15% and finally windows = 10%. Have you heard / tried: Aerogel insulation where a 20mm blanket gives a 77% heat saving! Their products are going into vehicle batteries to help keep them cool and prevent these spontaneous fires. Also how about fitting earth closet / composting toilets to reduce water usage, combined with grey water recycling and maximize rain water capture.

Our single zone minisplit cost $7500 bare cost, with another $1500 for add-on options, less a $900 energy credit. Only 1000sf, but we priced a 2-zone at $13k with $1200 energy credit. If they ever make a proper minisplit geothermal I'd be in for it...we have the land. That would be in the far future with our relatively new heart pump.

So for some living off grid, what kind of energy does a thermal heat pump use? Does it need its own solar or wind energy source?

Installed Geo Thermal in 2012. I tell everyone it has been the single best investment in my home.

Upstate New York with open loop heat pump (artesian well) -- love it. Add some solar panels and it's cheap to run. Never worry about being hot/cold to save a few bucks. One correction is the 50/100 year lifespan on heat pumps. The ground loop likely will last 50+ years, but there is nothing special about a ground sourced heat pumps compared to air source heat pumps/air conditioners other than being protected indoors. Our house is 40 years old. We are on the third heat pump -- First was 1983-2002. Second was 2002-2021 and now third is 2021-??. Setting a 50-year expectation is a no-go.

Another way to do geo source heat pump is with what is called DX which stands for direct exchange. Instead of piping water pipes down vertically the installer tilts his bore down into the ground at say a 30Degree angle and then copper tubing is inserted into a number of holes that are bored. Might have ten or more holes bored each with copper tubing inserted into the holes. Then the installer would place a manifold for the lines going down to split the lines and an other one to re join the lines. The difference here is no water is used to exchange the working fluid with the freon.

For Whisper Valley in Austin, one thing to note is that on top of the utility cost, residents need to pay a monthly Geothermal assessment $55-70 per month (on top of the $55 per month HoA and $1,500 - $2,000 per year PID bond payment)

Very encouraging

If everyone had geothermal, would it heat the earth core any? And what are the repercussions of geothermal?

Old video at this point, but just found it. I am absolutely interested in getting a geothermal system installed in my home here in Pittsburgh, PA. I've got a 30 year old furnace and no central AC. I'm currently in the process of getting a solar system installed. Waiting on permits to go through at this point. My biggest concern with a geothermal system is space needed for the loops. With my small yard, only choice is vertical loops, but I'm concerned about depth needed and the possibility of old coal mine shafts sitting somewhere below my property.

We are about to break ground on a new build and are incorporating geothermal for our hydronic in slab heat (water to water heat pump). It will also provide our cooling through an air handler for fresh air and filtration. We hope to add solar to cover the power bill after we get a year of use in. We still have a natural gas boiler we will only use as a backup for when we lose power in those cold winter months.

Cool! ☺️ btw...thanks for pointing out Vinfast! I was wondering how long until a family could use ev tech!

I would have installed geo thermal but I live in Phx, AZ, and I think most of the land out here is like granite .. it's super hard and I would expect installation would be expensive due to the ground. On the other hand we have the most sun per year ( maybe Yuma beats us ) so I installed a 6.7 kW system that puts out about 40kWh per day in summer, and about 22kWh in winter which takes cares of 50% of my power needs in summer and provides more than enough in the winter time.

This would be great in a district system. Have geothermal heat pumps that pull heat from vertical loops and inject/remove it to the district heating/cooling water. This would work great in cities!

I bought a house last year (2021) that needs a new roof and a new air conditioner. Initially I was just going to get a new air conditioner, along with radiant heat flooring, but now I'm exploring all of the geothermal options, as I've been dead-set on building a geothermal greenhouse already, since finding Greenhouse in the Snow, and more recently CERES Greenhouse Solutions. I guess my question would be if I do geothermal for the house, it might get complicated to then install geothermal for the greenhouse. I wouldn't want the greenhouse build to ruin the existing system I'm using for the house, since there would be TWO geothermal systems underground. I've been looking into solar roof options as well, but this is all too much $$ up front, so it's a tricky thing. Seeing as how I need to replace a lot of these items already, I really don't want to spend a fortune on inefficient options when I could potentially get a loan or, if I can hold out a bit longer, just save more to get something I'll be proud of, helps the environment, and save me money in the long-run. Also, I just came to your video after watching Matt's Undecided. I always enjoyed his channel, and I like this video of yours, so I may subscribe after seeing more. I like the way you speak at a slower pace than some others. ADHD makes concentrating hard for me, so slower, more clear speech is helpful. :)

My coworker installed a ground source heat pump and its own power meter for a 2,000 sqft home in Pocahontas IL. It costs $12 mthly to heat and cool the home. Certainly the amount of solar cells to power this load would be not too many.

I discovered online that many geothermal installers across the US are using horizontal drill rigs to bury the loops. One 6' square hole allows drilling in several directions to avoid obstacles and adapt to odd shaped areas. The rigs can be used to drill at a deepening angle.

Thanks for another great video. Solar has already reduced my cooling/electric bill so I’m not sure a geothermal system will still pan out. But I like the idea of building it into home construction.

I have Geo thermal in Ontario Canada and love it.

It seems like we can take advantage of ground source heat pumps no mater where we are unless we are on a thick ice plate in the Antarctic. But some places will cost more for installation if they have bedrock or something too close to the surface. But without the cost of the hole/s and the clean up, ground source heat pumps would be very competitive with the cost of installation as other HVAC, etc... So, if you are already the type of person living in rural area with a little land that has a 3/4 ton truck at least, or access to one, then just rent the equipment dig the hole and run the lines yourself.

Amazing videos and topics, one of the best channels I have seen. Only thing that would make it even better if under imperial system even with smaller text you could add metric based numbers in the future just for us who are not too familiar with imperial system to follow it little bit easier. :)

I am living in Saudi Arabia and I would love to adapt the technology. Question, the under around temperature her is around 26c ,would it is still be affective? The different Temp is around 10 c

Unless you live in Alaska (where closed loop heat pumps are pretty awesome), the calculation that needs to be done is to compare the cost of the ground sourced heat pump against the cost of a normal heat pump + solar panels. I've done this calculation many times and I have never been able to justify digging into the ground. It just makes a lot more sense... enormously more sense, in most locations, to spend that money on a cheaper (less efficient) air-sourced heat pump plus solar panels. The other reason I would go this route is that it is a better fit for home energy storage systems (adding batteries to the solar system that you might want to do later on). That said, I still really like the idea of the ground-sourced heat pump. Well, at least closed-loop air systems. I don't think well-based systems are a good investment for numerous reasons (maintenance, well depth, and vertical movement of the water table potentially causing the system to fail), but I guess it depends on the location. BTW, modern gas furnaces last a lot more than 10-20 years. 30+ years is very typical these days. 10 years? Only if you are being scammed. The only thing that really breaks on a gas furnace is the Igniter which is $25 or less and a simple DIY replacement. -Matt

I'm planning a passive house build in either MN or New England. I don't know if geothermal +/- a heat pump is going to be necessary because of the level of insulation and the tight building envelope I plan to have, but it's definitely going to be considered!

It makes more sense with new construction than retro fitting to an older home. But if you are trying to save money on your existing home, add insulation to the attic to the right R-value, walls, replace windows to he double pane, upgrade furnace to a 92% or 95% efficiency. All of which will get you your savings within 15 years.

I have a ground source heat pump and I think it is important to remember that you are using the ground like a battery by storing heat when cooling and taking heat from the ground when heating. Because of this, imbalances of your heating and cooling needs for the year affect efficiency. This is an often ignored element in the discussion.

Is it possible to heat and cool a home with geothermal and only using solar power drive the system? How would I find more information regarding these types of systems?

Here in the UK we have gas approx 1/3 cost of electricity. Unfortunately unless you have a rural property, are well off enough to have huge land in a town/city then ground source is unaffordable. We couldn’t have trench loops due to lack of space. A borehole requires planning applications and is over 1yr salary. Grants can help but don’t touch the sides for this type. We are keen on an air source but due to high demand, good competent installers are not easy or cheap to come by. My search continues whilst wading through the cowboys trying to take advantage of a currently lucrative market. Can’t really DIY particularly if you want to take advantage of grant options.

We had Geothermal installed last September and it has worked flawlessly. It is a 5 ton vertical closed loop system with two 288ft wells. In January it used 1269 kwh (@.17/kwh is $215.73) , in April it used 387 kwh (@.235/kwh is $90.945) so it seems it will use less electricity in the summer. The oil furnace at 80% efficiency would use about 100 gallons of heating oil in a typical January plus electric for the blower (heating oil is now $5.37 per gallon here). Our house has 1920 sq ft of living space and was built in 1987 and is reasonably insulated. We live in near Kingston NY. We are installing a 16kw solar system as our electric went from .17/kwh in Dec '21' to .235/kwh in April '22'!

I've had Geothermal furnaces for 25 years in Michigan's UP and our annual electric bill is $1,500.

I'm up in Montana in an area that gets over 100 every summer and well below 0 in the winter, so would benefit year round. I assume the largest part of the high install cost is in excavation or well drilling. Having plenty of land, time and access to big equipment (and operators), I wonder how much would/could be saved doing a lot of the prep work in advance DIY. Would it become feasible for an existing home?

I'm located in the Northern Colorado Rockies up 7500 feet. I installed an Outdoor Wood Burning Boiler to heat my GreenHouse with for all year around growing. I ran 600 feet of 1/2 pex 2' under the dirt in the GH. Works great! I also heat my 3 story Log House with same through the existing 6 zone system radiant floor registers, and of course a heat exchanger, so I don't burn propane much any more. Cool huh? The boiler circulates 535 gallon of anti-freeze at 170 degrees, and firewood around here is free. : ) Edit to add; Oh, and the boiler has a reaction chamber for gasification, low emissions. But your vid gave me some great idea for the future. Good job! Thank you! Oh, and I'm all solar!

Great information, missing in the presentation is which companies provide the best system. Drop names of GEO companies that are viable today!

Love this subject! Thanks for doing a video on it.. Couple of thoughts: check out dandelion energy in the northeast…

Could you do a video on whether heat pump water heaters actually save energy. I have been thinking about installing one and it occurs to me that the heat has to come from somewhere. So, it would depend on where they were installed. Mine would be installed in the closet in my unconditioned garage. Also, don't hear much about adding a desuperheater to you A/C to preheat the water going into the water heater.

A comment to feed the algorithm. Thanks for the video 👍.

My brother just bought a home on 7 acres, and is planning on buying an excavator, so I sent him the link for this video. With a geo thermal system and solar he could be 100 percent off grid.

This is great. I’m in northern ca and wondering if anyone knows of any reputable installers for ground source?

As Amory Lovins (RMI) would say: Think design first. Often overlooked because it's not tech, it's forever (the life of the house). Passive solar + ultra-insulation/thermal bank = life time savings. I continually hear about new building designs that tout saving 50% or more on energy costs. Then, I remember Dr. Lovins' house/office at 7200 feet with a tropic environment with zero heating/cooling. Why not go all the way and eliminate the need for energy input, depreciating, maintenance requiring tech?

Hi! I have a question. Is this ideal for tropical countries in south east asia? we don't have winter. just heat all throughout the year. will this work for only cooling our house?

A stirling engine just needs a hot side and a cold side to produce electricity or pump working fluids, the ground or aquifer could be the cold in the summer and the hot in the winter. Now what other things are warm and could benefit from cooling or provide heat energy, solar panels, pools?, external walls and roof of a home or structure, attic, roads, sidewalks, ... they also radiate heat well. Solar would benefit from the stability of a heat pump / stirling engine cooling and produce even more power.

I love my geothermal system

Ground source heat pumps (GSHPs) are great. But the additional efficiency cannot always justify the additional cost. Modern air source heat pumps (ASHPs), particularly cold climate models, have narrowed the performance gap with GSHPs. The cost of the ground wells can be substantial, so without a substantial efficiency difference, GSHPs struggle to pay back their increased costs in energy savings. GSHPs will tend to do better in more extreme climates (both hot and cold) and where the building loads are higher (don't think your house, think commercial buildings). Ground conditions will also be key. Some ground is more expensive to drill than other. But GSHP wells can easily cost 2x the above-ground equipment. So, do your research. GSHPs are great, but aren't the right solution for every home or building. If you aren't in an extreme climate, or if your home is already fairly efficient, or the ground conditions aren't right, you may never recoup the substantially higher up-ftont costs.

Passivhaus standards of build will mean that you don't need any heat pump, but have an MVHR system to recover heat. An average family of four will produce quite a bit of heat during the day which will soon get you towards Net Zero!

THANKSsssssssssssssss ❤