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HEALTH 03-02-10 DM EE E5 BLACK
TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 2010
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Replacing oil heat with Earth’s warmth
C
hristopher Gearon hired several companies that together the 55-degree ground temperature into the fluid circulating
installed a geothermal heating and cooling system in his through the system.
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A crew repairs excavation along the
Montgomery County house, and he coordinated their work driveway; after hitting rock, the drillers and Gearon had to find a
along the way. He also took photos of their progress and their new route to get the pipes connected to the house.
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Workers
problems.
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A drilling rig sinks two holes 375 feet deep in drill into the foundation to connect the loop system to the heat
Gearon’s yard, then feeds two polyethylene pipes down the holes, pump indoors.
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The heat pump is in the basement; beside it is
which are about six inches in diameter. The holes are filled a tankless hot water heater.
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2 With the geothermal system
with grout, which holds the pipes in place and will help conduct installed, the unnecessary oil tank is hauled away.
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PHOTOS BY CHRISTOPHER GEARON
Tax breaks make geothermal system a cool idea
geothermal continued from E1 underground loop system, a geothermal
on washingtonpost.com
thermal heat pump was going to be in- we won’t be spending $3,000 a year on
heat pump and an air-delivery system. stalled in the basement at the back of oil. We will spend a little more on pro-
But we felt the results would be worth The loop system is hundreds of feet of
QUESTIONS FOR
the house. The drillers hit rock on their pane, because it fuels the hot-water sys-
it. We looked forward to reducing our polyethylene piping that is buried in the
THE AUTHOR? Join
first planned route to the back yard, so tem. But according to the Maryland En-
carbon footprint by replacing our 24- ground and filled with a water-anti-
him for an online chat about
they changed plans and began excavat- ergy Administration, we can expect to
year-old oil-burning furnace and an ag- freeze mixture. This fluid circulates re-
converting to geothermal. Visit
ing along the driveway. The new route use 25 to 50 percent less electricity, be-
ing and inefficient air conditioning sys- peatedly through the pipes, where it ab-
washingtonpost.com/health.
endangered the stability of our garage cause of lower air conditioning costs.
tem. sorbs the underground temperature and a retaining wall. We eventually put In all, we expect to make back the
And the statistics we’d gathered were and brings it indoors.
Tuesday, 1 p.m.
the piping through the front of the money we spent for on our geothermal
awesome. “Geothermal systems expel Inside the house is the heat pump. house and across our basement ceiling. investment in just over three years.
zero emissions,” I was told by Errol Heat pumps work like refrigerators: thinking outside the carbon-based box: In the end, more of the yard got With the hot water addition, it will
Nicholson of Griffith Energy Services of They use electricity to transfer heat We flirted briefly with solar, ruled out ripped up than I’d bargained for, and probably take us four years.
Cheverly. “For every kilowatt of energy from one space to another. During the wind because of our locale. Partly be- the drilling process took significantly
consumed by [running] a geothermal winter, typical heat pumps extract heat cause of the tax incentives, geothermal longer than we’d expected. That meant
How it’s working
heat pump, it yields approximately five from the outdoor air and bring it in- seemed like our best bet. As Malcolm the HVAC company had to reschedule The heat has been working well, even
kilowatts of heating or cooling. Geother- doors. There is heat in the outdoor air, Woolf, director of the Maryland Energy installation of the heat pump. It wasn’t during this winter’s record-breaking
mal heat pumps are over 400 percent ef- even on freezing days, though it takes a Administration, put it: “Geothermal is until a few days before Thanksgiving blowouts. It’s not as dry as our old
ficient. It’s hard to beat that.” lot more electricity to extract that heat the most cost-effective of all the renew- that we were finally able to flip the forced-air heat. There’s no longer any
Just as important, we counted on sav- when the temperature plummets. able energy sources.” switch on our completed system. risk of carbon monoxide poisoning, as
ing a lot of money. First, the net cost of That’s where geothermal heat pumps As in many home renewal projects, the system doesn’t involve combustion,
installation was about the same as that come in. They work on the same princi- locating and comparing contractors
What we paid, and saved
flames or fumes. It’s quiet, and we don’t
of replacing the oil furnace and AC unit ple, but instead of extracting heat from was a complicated effort. During the Geothermal technology has gotten a worry as we used to about keeping the
with a new system: about $10,000. No- the air, they extract it from the 55- process I made two major decisions: big boost from the 2008 federal bailout thermostat in the mid-60s. We crank it
tice the word “net”: That price tag is due degree fluid circulating in the loop sys- First, I decided to act as my own project legislation and last year’s American Re- up to the upper 60s. (We like a cooler
to an extraordinary assortment of feder- tem. manager, hiring separate companies for covery and Reinvestment Act. First, the house.)
al, state and local tax credits and in- In summer, the system works more or individual pieces of the system. Second, bailout bill re-categorized geothermal That’s not to say some fine-tuning
centives that have recently become less in reverse: The geothermal heat we decided to change the way we got heat pumps from energy-efficient devic- wasn’t required. The blower needed to
available as part of economic-stimulus pump extracts heat from the indoor air our domestic hot water: A tankless, on- es to renewable-energy technologies, be adjusted so there wasn’t a differ-
and energy-saving initiatives. Further, and transfers it to the fluid, which cools demand heater would add to our up- similar to solar and wind equipment. ential between floors of the house. The
we have been assured that our utility as it circulates through the under- front cost but also to our long-term sav- Then, the recovery bill provided an un- thermostat was changed a couple of
bills will be reduced so dramatically ground loops. The system also works as ings. (See sidebar, below. ) limited 30 percent tax credit for renew- times so it could accommodate the new
that we’ll recoup every dime we spent a dehumidifier and more efficiently By October, we had our team lined up able-energy projects. (That credit ex- controls. But our contractor was cooper-
within a few years; from then on, the than most traditional air conditioners. and we were ready to go. pires in 2016.) ative, and problems were solved.
savings will be pure gravy. Finally, this heated or cooled air has First, our plumbing contractor in- Maryland also offers substantial in- I can’t wait to see how the air condi-
Four months after breaking ground to be sent throughout the home. Geo- stalled the tankless water heater and centives through the state’s Geothermal tioning works.
on this project — months that included thermal heat pumps can be connected the piping to connect it to our propane Heat Pump Grant Program. And Mont- For anyone considering geothermal,
record-breaking snowfall and weeks of to hot-water radiator systems, but the tank. That was pretty painless. gomery County gives a property tax I’d say talking with people who have un-
freezing temperatures — we are com- overwhelming majority use electricity Then a delay, as we had to wait an ex- credit for renewable-energy projects. dertaken a similar project is advisable.
fortably warm and glad we did it. Here’s to blow the moderated air through tra two weeks for the well drillers. When Because tax credits lower your taxes Getting different bids and checking ref-
our story. ducts, like a typical forced-air HVAC sys- they showed up, they brought a 60-ton, by the exact dollar amount of the credit, erences is essential. Consult county offi-
tem. 36-foot-tall drilling rig mounted on an they are far more valuable than a tax de- cials, or make sure the contractors do,
The science
18-wheeler-size truck. Like a huge Gat- duction. Check out www.dsireusa.org to on local rules. The residential geother-
Although about a million geothermal
How we did it
ling gun, it sent a 20-foot drill eating find the financing incentives offered by mal market is still emerging: Prices vary
systems have been installed in the Unit- My family’s geothermal journey start- through its chunk of earth, then loaded your state and county. widely, and new, inexperienced contrac-
ed States — about half residential, half ed last May, when we paid Sustainable another 20-foot rod on top of the first Here’s how it worked out for us: tors are jumping in, seeking customers
commercial — the technology still is not Design Group of Gaithersburg $250 for one, and so on. It took about five hours The total bill for the geothermal heat- lured by the tax credits.
well known. an energy audit of our four-bedroom to drill each of the two holes about 15 ing and cooling system was $23,950. “The consumer needs to be careful
The basic principle isn’t complicated. home. feet apart and insert two polyethylene (I’m not including either the cost or tax and prequalify the people you contract
The temperature of the Earth a few feet The audit said we had spent $4,300 in pipes (we have been told they will last benefits of the tankless hot water sys- with,” says John Turley, chairman of the
below the surface (and for hundreds of the preceding year to heat and cool the for 50 years) into each hole. Then the tem, since it’s a separate option. And I’m International Ground Source Heat
feet below that) is moderate and fairly house and to heat our water. The biggest two vertical configurations were con- not including re-landscaping the yard.) Pump Association’s advisory council. “A
constant. In the Washington area, it item in that total was $3,000 for oil. (We nected by a horizontal link about six The 30 percent federal tax credit will lot of people are getting into this . . . out
stays in the mid-to-upper 50s year- use propane for cooking.) A new oil fur- feet underground. Another truck fol- take $7,185 right off the top. We’ll get a of desperation.”
round. The idea of geothermal is to nace plus new air conditioning would lowed, filling the airspace around the check for $2,000 from Maryland’s grant But we expect to save thousands of
transfer that heat into the house, then cost at least $9,500. piping with grout to stabilize the pipes program and a $5,000 property tax dollars as years go by. We’re happy with
make the relatively small leap from The audit also gave advice on ways to and maximize the conductivity. credit from Montgomery County. the long-term benefits both for us and
there to a comfortable level. save money, and we considered replac- Next we had to run the pipes into our So our bottom-line cost for installing planet Earth. And all through this long,
In practice, it means a homeowner ing windows and being even thriftier house. This got complicated. The holes geothermal is $9,765. We expect to make cold winter, I’ve had a grin on my face.
needs three basic components: an with the thermostat. Then we started were in our front yard, while the geo- all that money back pretty quickly. First, health-science@washpost.com
To make good choices, you need to know the geothermal drill
Once we decided on a geothermal sys- field, but it would have torn up most of piping and fluid, I picked Michael Bar- they assembled, and I figured that they’d without putting the icing on it,” and pro-
tem, the first steps were getting edu- my yard. By the time they laid hundreds low Well Drilling of Bel Air. Barlow has take extra care to make sure their first posed using the geothermal heat pump
cated and getting bids — and the two of feet of piping, we would have faced a done occasional geothermal systems for geothermal venture would be done right. to keep a tank of hot water at about 80
processes were not unconnected. big landscaping bill. The other two com- years; the driller who showed up on-site In addition, they were the lowest bidder degrees, at almost no extra operating
The first bid for a complete installa- panies wanted to go vertical. told us that since the housing downturn and offered zero-percent financing. cost. Then a high-efficiency tankless hot
tion came in at $37,000; even with tax Loop systems also can be open, — has pretty much wiped out the market Meanwhile, I was also getting infor- water heater, hooked to our existing pro-
breaks, that was way too high. I went meaning the fluid inside the pipes is wa- for drilling new water wells, geothermal mation from Mark Schweber, owner of pane tank, could cheaply kick it up to
shopping. The next two bids were con- ter drawn from surface or underground is a much bigger part of the company’s Water Works Plumbing in Gaithersburg, 120 degrees.
siderably lower, $25,700 and $27,800. By sources, such as lakes or wells — or work. who took his own house geothermal last The tankless heater itself cost more,
comparing them, I learned a lot about closed. Montgomery County prefers For the crucial geothermal heat summer. It was invaluable to visit his but it qualified for its own tax in-
different approaches to geothermal. closed systems, which don’t discharge pump, we chose Griffith Energy Ser- home, check out his system and under- centives, lowering the actual additional
For example, the in-ground loop sys- anything into the aquifer. We decided on vices, the Cheverly company that had stand the process from someone who’d cost from about $3,000 to $1,500. And
tem can be installed vertically or hori- a vertical closed-loop system. been servicing our traditional HVAC for been through it and could verify that it like the geothermal system, it’s project-
zontally. The first company proposed a We also decided that instead of buy- some years. We picked it even though had lowered his energy bills. ed to be far cheaper to operate over time
horizontal configuration. That meant ing a complete package from one com- Griffith had never put in a geothermal The original bidders had proposed us- than traditional alternatives. We told
shallower drilling, but it would have pany, we could save money by negotiat- system — our home would be its first at- ing a traditional electric hot water heater Schweber we’d do it, and we were ready
spread out too far: Not only would it get ing with individual contractors. To drill tempt. But I knew them to be a respon- with the geothermal system. But to begin.
too close to my septic system’s drainage the holes and install the polyethylene sive company, I liked the team of experts Schweber said, “That’s like baking a cake — Christopher J. Gearon
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