Geothermal

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by wolf_bluejay

II got a 95% furnace and heat pump (after grants) for about 5K. My annual heat bill is not at about $180, so the pay back is only a few years (and the furance and air-con were dead anyways).

don't want to side line this thread, but could you PM me some information of what you got (brands and such and who did the install) I need to replace the furnace in the houe I bought soon, the AC is fairly new but just buying a furnace is almost 5K on its own.

Steve

[mike31154]

Thanks for all the input so far, I figured somewhere between 20 & 30K. The heat pump sounds like it may be a great alternative. My home is an older bungalow with roughly 1,000 sq ft upper level and same for the basement. The furnace is good but is certainly not new and I no longer use the central air since it dates back to the '70's and is pretty much toast. Even with the Okanagan heat waves in the summer, I've been able to stay fairly comfy by opening the windows at night - it cools off fairly well overnight in Vernon, even in mid-summer. I have one of those 4 in 1 moveable air conditioner, de humidifier, heater, fan units that gets me through the times when a heat wave lasts for a couple of weeks or more. Even though my place was built in the early '60s, the insulation is quite good particularly in the attic.

I'll have to do a little more research now and decide whether I'm prepared to blow the big bucks on geo thermal and deal with the 20 year pay back (I may not live that long) or maybe do the heat pump instead. I'm also redoing all of the flooring and have installed electric loop heating under tiles at my bay window in the L/R. Will probably do the same in the kitchen, bathroom and sun room. So after all that, geo thermal may be overkill if I can get away with a heat pump instead. Either way, I definitely want to take advantage of the grant, make the gov't pay...