Castanet

bob vernon wrote:I can't believe these tales on here about people taking out a 7 year old geothermal system "because it cost too much to maintain." What maintenance does it take other than adding a small amount of liquid in the first few years? The installer comes by in the fall and checks it out and might give it a top up. It has run flawlessly for years. The vertical pipes are pro-rated warranteed for 50 years. My geothermal system was $19,800 and included adding a cold air return duct to make the circulation better. Our house is 3,008 square feet and all I did was insulate and seal it up as best I could myself. Monthly Hydro averages $158. Go back to natural gas? Never.

bob vernon wrote:I don't know what they are talking about. My liquid comes out of the ground at a steady 15C and goes back into the ground at 5C degrees in the winter. All the lines are heavily insulated where they come up from far below any frost in the soil.

bob vernon wrote:Does your system use forced air to get the heat around the house, or does it use liquid and radiators? I don't know a thing about the liquid system. In our system the warm liquid from the compressor goes through a radiator in the plenum above the compressor. When heat is needed, the fan comes on and blows through the radiator and moves the heat through ducts and through the house. I just leave the thermostat set at 20.5C all the time and rarely change it.
I still can't figure out this freezing problem that they were talking about.