Someone tell me about Geo-thermal heating...

[Om Girl]

DH and I just looked at a house with Geo-thermal heating...and it sounds too good to be true! Heating/cooling bills of $150.00 per YEAR?

This home will eventually be certified LEED silver...so there's many energy saving utilities in the home also...
We're excited, but want some reality check.
TIA

[mbravebird]

Geothermal is great. Our neighbor has it. He pays less than 100 a month in winter for electric in a 3000+ sq. foot home. Not sure what his other electricity use is like, i.e. how much of that is his geothermal unit. We considered getting s geothermal system, but the upfront cost was too high given the other renovations we had to make to our home (even though it would have paid for itself eventually).

How big is the home you're looking at? All the research we did said that geothermal is great, great, great.

[mama_bee]

we lived in an apartment building with geothermal heating so while we didn't PAY for it [the management paid heating costs] i can say that it was by far the best, most efficient heating we've EVER had. i loved it!

[Om Girl]

Originally Posted by mbravebird

How big is the home you're looking at? All the research we did said that geothermal is great, great, great.

The home is 1500 square feet built on a concrete slab...

The only downside is that it's in a neighborhood that has just begun to make the smallest of transitions into a nicer neighborhood...it's still a little "urban"

[marie1080]

Geothermal IS great!

It is very economical and decreases dependance on fossil fuel. What's not to love?

We really want geothermal but the installation cost in our area is between 15,000 and 20,000....

I'm jealous:

I had this page bookmarked from when DH and I were looking into it
http://www.earthcomfort.com/how_geothermal_works.html
It gives a nice simple explanation.

Good luck with your house shopping!