Is It Feasible To Retrofit An Existing Electric- Or Oil-Heated Building With A Geoexchange System?
Filed under geothermal F.A.Q.
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. There are several considerations when deciding if a geothermal system would be cost effective in an existing building.
exchangenergy has written an in-depth article on our blog about it. Click here to read more about what to consider when deciding on a geothermal retrofit.
Howdy,
We live in Hamilton and installed a 4 tonne system
about five years ago. Quiet and efficient (we can
cool the house 15 degrees celcius in an hour), we
do not regret anything.
It replaced an oil burning furnace that was from
the mid-1980′s and had a 900L tank that we filled
4 times per year. The last fill was $1.10/litre –
the $3600+ per year for oil, the CO2 producing
fossil fuel, the premium to our insurance due to
having this flammable/costly leak clean up fuel
in our home is not missed.
But we live in Ontario. The Liberal Gov’mnt here
are pushing clean energy. Which is great… but
they are increasing electricity bills (46% over
five years) to try and force people to conserve
energy and reduce GHG’s.
Geotheraml systems only use electricity to power
the pupms and convert the heat. Our consumption
went from about 8700 KWHr with oil heat to 14
294KWhr with the geothermal/ground source heat
system. We saved over $2500 that year alone. But
and almost 50% increase really bites into the
payback period we initially projected at twelve
years. It is ironic that they will have replaced
the dirty coal plants with wind power and a big
expansion of hydroelctricity capacity at Niagara
Falls giving us a zero GHG footprint with the
geothermal system yet it will take me years
longer (46%+ more) to try an recoup the extra
money back that we invested into this system.
In true government[limited perspective] form,
their move to force conservation of electricity
to decrease GHG production means those burning
heating oil and Natural Gas will likely have a
much lower operating cost than our clean, zero
emission system.
Thougths about this?
Mike