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Originally Posted by The kitchen guy
I am a builder and I have installed a few systems. As everyone else has said, it is not cost effective except for my customers who got tax incentives from the federal government and rebates from the public service.
It works best with radiant heat through gypcrete and your house is existing without that feature. It also needs to be in a house with very good insulation (like closed cell foam).
At the end of the day it works like a heat pump by removing heat from cold water. It requires at least one well and is essentially electric heat. It does not work efficiently in very cold weather so additional heaters are required.
If you are looking for it to be cost effective you need someone else to pay for it.
I think the future for cost effective heat will be in gas (l.p. or natural). It is low in maintenance and increasing in abundance. Good luck.
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I can only advise from my 3 years using Geothermal heating. I have never had to use additional heaters in cold weather. The difference could be the type of installation, size of system or make of Geothermal equipment.
I would never go back to fossil fuel heating source. I don' worry about fumes, no need to clean boiler ever year and maintenance is very low. It is interesting the new Kingswood school complex in Wolfeboro installed Geothermal in all of the new four school buildings. Remember insulation for any heating system is a key component. It is better " To save a BTU than to create a BTU"