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Geothermal Heating
Going Green
Going Green: Geothermal Heating
Welcome to the world of geothermal heating and cooling for your home. This unit doesn't look much different from the furnace you'll find in the basement of most homes but note the two pipes on the right side.
Water from eight feet underground is pumped through the unit to provide heat in the winter and cooling in the summer. This house is using a horizontal geothermal system.
“In the rear of the house we have twenty four hundred feet of linear coil filled with water and glycol that's responsible for the transfer of heat. Right now we're taking the heat out of the house and emptying it into the earth and it'll be just the reverse of that in the winter time when we take the natural heat out of the earth and bringing it into the house,” said Michael Pettinato, General Manager for Harrington Homes.
The coils are eight feet below ground where the temperatures stay between 50 and 55 degrees year round. So in the winter when it's below zero outside, the air temperature inside your home starts at fifty five degrees.
You're going to save anywhere from sixty to seventy five percent on your monthly utility bill that would go toward your cooling and heating so that can add up to significant savings
There's a 30 percent federal tax credit to help with the cost. When you're building new, you can do a system like this for about $15,000 installed and that includes a system that will actually offer you free hot water so the incentives right now are fantastic for it. Plus this is one way individuals can reduce their use of fossil fuels.
“Economically it's becoming more competitive so really it's a solution that isn't as extreme as it was once thought. It's going to be used more and more, I think, in people's homes as they recognize the advantages,” said Paul Crovella, SUNY-ESF.
